Personal (Family) doctor Vs Polyclinic specialists (Corporate Hospital)

Big companies provide medical benefits to their employees. Since the employee is too busy with his job and career, he goes to the company approved corporate hospital for even for small ailments. He is not bothered about the charges.

Now he is attended by some doctor. This doctor prescribes a series of tests and after the test reports only, he decides his course of treatment. If the patient happens to go for a second time, most probably the attending doctor is different, unless it is specified. Then if that doctor is not available for that day, the patient ends up with another doctor, who goes through the earlier records to decide his treatment or further tests. These tests will be explained as to make sure that there are no other problems other than complained.

Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, Japan, who turned 101 last year, is one of the world's longest-serving physicians and educators. He advises

“When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go through such a procedure. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can't cure everyone.” 

Today, many that go to the doctor with problems in their daily lives hear that their problems are 'stress-related' but don't know the reason or how to stop it. Doctors today are encouraged to know more, but ask less. They have access to huge amounts of medical information, but rarely take the time to have a real conversation with a patient to find out about other factors in their lives including how they actually live them

The Bio –psycho- social model, or BPS, instructs the medical professional to take not only the sheer physical status of the patient at a given point, relying on physical measurements, but to take other factors in. These factors may be psychological (thoughts, emotions, behaviors) and/or social (socio-economical statues, environmental and cultural issues).

This approach is followed by homeopathy practitioners.

If you have a family doctor, who knows you very well over years, he will advise you the course of action, with few or no tests.

Akshardham Temple , New Jersey

BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha) have built their largest Swaminarayan temple at Robbinsville .New Jersey, USA
The construction of this temple has created a number of records. When one approaches the temple area, neither the typical tower nor the flags can be seen. This is because the entire temple is encased inside a square structure. On entering this, you will be wonder struck with the beauty.The entire temple is constructed with marble. We were told by the volunteers that the marble slabs quarried at Italy, were sculpted by the artisans of Rajastan. 15339 sculpted marble pieces were shipped to Robbinsville. This temple is very much similar, in many aspects, to Dilwara temples at Mount Abu. All the pieces have been put together by skilled artisans at the site with the help of local engineers and BAPS volunteers.

It is interesting to note that no two pillars are identical. The rectangular ceiling above the four pillars are intricately carved. None of the rectangular ceiling are similar. The temple has two hemispherical domes packed with fine bracket figures, chandelier type carving in the centre, and innumerable motifs. The whole temple is lit with concealed LED type spot lights to enhance the beauty of the carvings.

The flooring is covered with different designs created with various coloured stones. The flooring has been done with underground heating so that the marble will not be too cold. The entire space within the encasement building is temperature controlled.

In this temple complex, there is a huge convention hall ( Maharaj Pramukh Swami Sabha hall), which has a seating for about 2000 people. This hall is flanked on either side by full size indoor basket ball courts.
More details about the temple can be had from
HTTP://www.baps.org/Global-Network/North-America/Robbinsville/News.aspx

Adventure at Muktinath

We,a group of ten people went to Nepal to have the darshan of Muktinath. This is one of the Divyadesams outside India.

Our travel to Muktinath was full of adventure, even though our travel agent arranged everything. I like to share my experience with the people who are interested in visiting Muktinath. Going to Pokhara from Kathmandu by road is very interesting. On the way , we visited Manokamna Devi temple. The ride by cable car to the shrine is breath-taking. One should avoid going to Manokamna temple on Saturdays, as there will be heavy rush and one may have to wait for hours to get the cable car ride.

From Pokhara, one has to take a flight to Jomsom, the base for going to Muktinath. The flight to Jomsom by small planes is operated only in the morning between 7 AM and 10-00 AM. The plane has to fly between the mountains and if the wind in the gorge is high, the flights are not permitted. One has to count his luck to have the flight on the day. We met many people in the hotel, who could not have the flight.

We were lucky to get the flight to Jomsom. The hotels here display the menu board in Tamil. The hotels offer idli, dosai, sambar, rasam etc. We were supposed to go to Muktinath temple , which is at an altitude of 12000' by jeep. Here our adventure started. The jeep operators were on a strike. Our hotel owner suggested that we could go on motorbike.The distance from the hotel to Muktinath temple is 25 kms. Only we got on the bike, we started to realise the adventure in this ride.Literally there is no road and the path is full of stones and pebbles.The path crosses Gantaki river bed and continually winding and rising.With the chill wind blowing on our faces, we at last reached Muktinath with our hearts in our mouth. The eldest member of our group is 75 years and no one believed that we traveled to Muktinath by bike.

The temple is managed by some Nepali women. There is no puja or archana in the temple. There are 108 theerthams ( only spouts) in which devotees take bath, Then they dip themselves in the two ponds in front of the temple. After the darshan,we were lucky to get the jeep, which had started plying.

We had an wonderful and awesome experience and all felt the Viswa roopam of the Almighty in this trip.

Kailashanathar Temple at Kanchipuram

Last week I had been to Kanchipuram and visited some temples which I had not visited in my earlier visits.

The most interesting one was Kailashanathar temple. This temple complex is under Archaeological Survey of India. It is situated slightly outside the town. The temple opens at 9 A.M like an office. All temples under the control of ASI ( Darasuram temple near Kumbhakonam, Avinashi temple near Erode) have the same timings.

When I saw the temple first, I felt as though the Mahabalipuram temple had been lifted and placed there. The difference is that the entire temple is made of sand stone. So one can see the heavy wear and tear of all sculptures due to the weather. ASI are patching those damages with some lime mortar mixtures. In spite of all, one can never miss the beauty of this Pallava architecture.

There are two Shiva lingams in this temple. The mythological story is that these were worshiped by Lord Vishnu and Muni Naradha. The lingams are unique . They have sixteen faces,each representing one kala and not circular. The lingam with Avudai is made of pure black granite. It is shining without a drop of oil and looks grand. There is a belief that doing parikrama inside the temple is equivalent to doing parkrama of mount Kailash. For doing this, one has to crawl through a small hole in the wall and come out through another hole.

The outer prakaram is full of beautiful sculptures.  People visiting Kanchi should include this temple also.

America on wheels museum,

On our way to Vraj , we visited the America on Wheels museum at Allentown, PA. There is good collection of various cars produced in USA. They are all old and older models, giving us the idea of evolution of automobiles. The oldest model exhibited, had been manufactured in1904!. The head lamps are oil wick lamps made of brass. It was interesting to note that electric car was made in 1917, as the people were not liking petrol cars. There were single seat cars, that look like Go-carting vehicles. The designers of those days had toyed with the idea of strong wooden axles.









Car with wooden axle

Another interesting exhibit is a complete railway station along with a park and buildings. The entire thing is constructed with LEGO bits. This exhibit was displayed by a group of LEGO enthusiasts. The interiors of the building and the rail-coach were full of details.