 Good evening everyone, can you all hear me? You can confirm on a chat or you can just unmute and say yes if you can hear me all. Very good evening to everybody and I hope all of you are safe and healthy so no contact with the virus whatsoever. So we pray for your safe health and well-being. So on that note, we will be now introducing our panelists so all of you know we are conducting this program called Sentom Connect. The idea is to expose you to multiple vocations which are there and which are going to be there and you have to explore later in your life. So hence we all from our experience know that it is very difficult to come on to any conclusion about one's career or vocation on a very short span of time. So it's always good to keep researching and talking to experts and you know get relevant information so that you can plan your career accordingly. So with that note, just let me introduce the panelists. Give me one second. So we have with us Dr. Uma Maheshwari, Krishna Swami, welcome ma'am. So ma'am is a professor for pulmonary medicine at St. John's Medical College, Bangalore. She is a MBS MD in medicine and she's DM pulmonary and critical care medicine and she's also fellow in sleep disorders. So she has specialized into internal medicine pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine. So she has a lot of publication in research papers and journals. So I welcome ma'am on the panel today and I sincerely hope that the experience and knowledge of Dr. Uma will be useful for all of you. So I will also explain the program structure before that. I will just introduce to you Dr. Venkat and he happens to be another panelist on our, just give me a second. There is some people who are reaching out to me, just give me a second guys. Just a minute, I'm just solving a technical issue with someone. Sorry, so yes, so I will also welcome Dr. Venkat. He is ophthalmologist by profession and he is diplomat of National Board in ophthalmology and he has secured gold medal in ophthalmology and in medicine. So he has done his fellowship in vitro retinal surgery and FRCS Edinburgh. He's a certified doctor from Indiana University USA and New York eye and ear infirmary for management of diabetic retinopathy and dry eyes respectively. So he heads today Guru Mangala Eye Foundation, he's the director there and he will also be talking about the retinal or eye hygiene or eye care especially when you guys are now facing a lot of digital exposure. So with those words, I welcome Dr. Uma and Dr. Venkat, both of you. I really thank both of you to having spared time and you have come and taken out time from your busy schedule. I know doctors today are equivalent to gods, not only today, they were equivalent to gods before also. So I really thank both of you for sparing some time and now educating our children. So what we are going to do guys is this, that we have a flow of presentation and the panel discussion today. So what is that? So I'll take you through. So first, you know, we will be talking about the current pandemic. So these are the things which we must know. And Dr. Uma will be talking about that then Dr. Venkat will be talking about eye care during online classes. So now that you know you are facing lots of online classes, whether it is school, whether our classes or whatever else. So you have to take care of your eyes as well. So Dr. Venkat will be throwing some light on that as well. Then Dr. Uma is going to talk about something very critical and we have been talking about this to all students, especially those who are facing comparative examinations is that about regulation of sleep patterns. So she will be talking about that. And then we will be, you know, taking up or panel discussion where we'll be discussing lots of questions related to medical profile or medical science as a career option, followed by a Q&A towards the end. So that that is the flow of the presentation. With that now I will invite Dr. Uma and ma'am please, you know, enlighten us about do's and do's of the COVID, the current pandemic and how to manage in a very precise manner. Okay. Thanks ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Tushar and hi to all of you. So I'll keep it simple. Most of you have heard or read in the media about COVID and the havoc it's wreaking and we are now riding high on the second wave of the pandemic. So as students, I think most of you would be attending classes online from home. You would not be venturing out much. So simple things you need to know as common people is one, what causes COVID? How do I prevent myself from getting infected with the COVID virus? How do I take care of people at home because most of you might have parents and grandparents at home. How do I take care? What precautions do I take while attending to people who probably may turn positive? I hope it doesn't happen to anybody but then all of us are seeing it happen. So first of all, what you need to know is that COVID is a virus which affects the respiratory tract. It spreads through droplets or what are called aerosols. Yeah, requesting all the participants to keep your mics on mute all the time. Yeah, thanks. Sorry ma'am. Yeah. So what you need to know is COVID is a respiratory virus. It loves the respiratory tract. When you think of common cold virus or the influenza virus, mostly it homes in the nose and back of your throat and that's why all your sniffles and sneezing and stuff happens. But the COVID virus here is a bit sly, I could say. It enters through the nose but it homes in the lung and it causes damage there. So it is more dangerous when compared to your common cold virus or so-called rhino virus and influenza virus and stuff. So it spreads through droplets. It can spread through surfaces that is touching, basically touching a contaminated surface and touching your face, eyes or nose. Because it can go through conjunctiva, it can go through nose and the mouth. So you have to be very careful. Basically, the way to prevent COVID is one is to keep your nose and mouth covered whenever you're in a public place. If somebody is in your house is infected, better to isolate them in a room. They should wear a mask. You should wear a mask. Even if it's a cloth mask, both people wearing a mask will cut transmission by almost 90%. The other important thing is whenever you handle any substance from outside or you handle things belonging to an infected person, hand hygiene. So you can actually see my hands here as a healthcare personnel. After lots of washing, skin has tapped off. We keep applying moisturizer. We actually obsessively hand wash to prevent spread because we come in contact with patients. So obsessive hand washing, sanitizing is very important. Don't touch your face, eyes or nose after touching a suspected contaminated surface. And you're all youngsters who like to be active. Jogging in the park or jogging on the road is fine, but contact sports is not recommended. We all know that even in the IPL, the bio bubble was breached. A lot of people turned positive. So any close contact that is within 2 feet in a closed area for more than 15 minutes is dangerous for COVID spread. Also, we don't have to stretch to 15 minutes and see if it can happen lesser than that if you're in a poorly ventilated place. So somebody has been there and coughed and transmitted the virus and you enter that place without adequate face protection. You can get the virus. In elderly, even in my own house who visited the local bank and got infected. So closed spaces are a no-no. It's very important for all of you to exercise. So you can exercise inside the house, on the terrace, on the streets, in the park, provided some distancing is maintained and provided you're not getting into contact sports. Another question which everyone would want an answer to is, should I wear a mask while outdoors? Again, it's about distance. If you're the only one in the park, no need to wear a mask. But practically in the park where I go to walk, it's a running race. I'm running away with people without masks. You know the entire atmosphere is above your head to dissipate the virus. But if there is someone within 2 feet of you who coughs, you can always get the blast before it dissipates in the atmosphere. So be conscious of your surroundings. Just like you would cross a road and be aware of vehicles, be aware of the COVID virus. And people around you assume everyone is infected unless proven otherwise. So these are some simple precautions. When you're taking public transport again, as far as wear a mask, don't touch any surfaces. Arm rests, crossbars of windows on the metro or in this one, buses which you might travel. Same thing with taxis. If you touch also, please go and wash your hands immediately so that you don't get contaminated. So these are preventive measures. Stay positive. You have to do a lot of exercise, eat healthy food. If people at home get affected, do not panic. Best thing is to isolate them in a room. I understand that in many houses, isolation may become difficult. And now we are seeing whole families getting infected. So when I see a patient, they usually tell me everyone else at home is infected. So effectively, we are consulting for 6 people for the price of one. That's what is happening now. It's as bad as that. I'm not trying to scare you. And in a small percentage, it does become bad. Out of 100 people, 15 can behave badly. And out of 15, about 5 can land up in the ICU. Especially if the person is elderly. If they have comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer. If they are on some drugs to suppress their immune system. These people go bad. Like we know in statistics, nothing is set in stone. Somebody who is younger also can go for a severe disease. And in children also we are seeing severe disease. So please be careful if people at home get infected. Typically isolate, leave their food outside the door. Utensils used by them can be washed with soap and water. You have to wash your hands after that. Again keep them well hydrated. Toilets is a problem. You have to use separate restrooms for infected and non-infected patients if possible. If that is not possible, a good exhaust system in the restroom is advisable. And you all might have seen on the media also, flushing can generate an aerosol. So whenever you are flushing after using the restroom, if there is a suspected infected patient, or if you are living in an apartment complex with a common drainage system, close the lid of your WC and then flush. So that the aerosol does not come out. So these are some precautions which you need to take. And what I would advise is do not panic. I know there will be many parents also in the call. I know we are fighting a very big and difficult battle against COVID. We handled multiple calls for arranging beds for oxygen. Prevention is the best thing. And people who are 18 plus, vaccination is going to take some time. We are in short supply. Let the elders get vaccinated first. Again for those who have got vaccinated, vaccination does not guarantee no infection. It only ensures that if you get it, it may be mild. Having said that we are seeing patients with severe infections even after vaccination. But definitely it reduces the severity. So please get vaccinated. Those who are above 45, don't get desperate again. Another thing which I have seen in daily practice is that people are getting infected in the vaccination center. Because most places which are primary health centers, there is a COVID testing queue and a vaccination queue next to each other. In fact, today I got my second dose in a primary health center. I was alarmed to see that both the queues are next to each other. So again mask up, wear a shield if you are going for vaccination and hand washing. So this is what I have to say treatment and all I will not cover. If there are any specific questions, I will answer. Thank you. Thanks Ma'am for that great insight on the COVID management part of it. And I sincerely hope that all of us are maintaining that hygiene level high. And frankly within our, so I belong to several groups including my alma mater, IIT Kharagpur where we have done so-called silly thing where we are reminding everyone in every hour through WhatsApp that you have to go up, go and wash your hands now and come back and work like that. So as small thing as that. So going forward from here and now I'll welcome Dr. Venkat and Sir, please enlighten our children on how to take care of the eyes because I agree with most of the parents and because I have been listening to this and we ourselves are actually now exposed to this digital media for so long hours. So it will be very great if you help us, you know, manage this and, you know, some tips on how to take care of our eyes during these days. Thanks, sir. Thank you. Thanks Intermecademy, Prashant and the whole staff. It's been wonderful having this and nice to have this kind of a session, interactive session with parents and students in these times especially. To just add on what Madam had already covered a lot of things wonderfully covered and she's really given a gist of what is absolutely need to be done. Important additional aspect about it is now the importance of double masking also. So sometimes people who are exposed to or in very areas where you might have to go and you need to take that extra precaution. Important we can use a double mask which is basically like using kind of what is called as a surgical mask inside and over that use a cloth mask. Don't put two cloth masks, do not put two surgical masks and do not put a double mask if you're using an N95 mask. So that really has that extra protection because it sits more snugly that ensures basically there is less amount of space through which the infection can possibly also come through. And I will also add on additional point on that basically is the dry eye which we are talking about. There is a small portion of dry eye which is associated because of mask usage. It's literally called made mask associated dry eye disease. And that is also a very common aspect, especially for people who have been working in IT sector. They all end up with this kind of a problem much more because the exhaled air basically tends to cause more amount of dryness and evaporation resulting in a dry eye problem. So when you probably have a very kind of tightly snug mask that protects you more and prevents even this kind of a problem. So that may be an additional aspect you may want to think about and ensure. And if you have someone who is probably positive at home it's more important that everybody mains masked up at home too especially in close vicinity of the person whom you are taking care of. And if you are unique for some person to take care of the elderly person or someone who is probably not that ill but they are positive and ensure that only one person is taking care rather than like everyone in the family going and interacting with him. It can very often happen that we have grandchildren and they are very attached to grandparents so they tend to keep going and clinging to grandparents and then they are coming and clinging to the parents. So there is a likelihood of a greater spread therefore within the family and to prevent that aspect of it sometimes ensuring that there is only one person who goes and takes care minimalistically someone elderly in the family who can take care and then avoid the children from getting in touch to the person who could be positive. So two additional important points also as a part of it already Madam has covered that. I will just mention quickly about the importance of eyes. So many of you are senior students you already know the structure of the eye and things isn't it? So you have the front portion which is called the black portion. What is the black portion called? Can I see it on the chat box? I want quite a participative audience of students here. Students are there, right? Yes, very much. Guys, you have a very silent student. How do you maintain that silence? Wonderful. I like a chirpy kind of a class. So you can be chirpy about your pupil. Okay, the black portion. What is it called? Pupil, pupil, pupil. Can I get something else? It is not the pupil. Guys, my repetition is in your hands. Please make sure that you give. Yeah, perfect. I got one coming up there. Karniya, the first Karniya. Who gave the first Karniya? Adipte Guru Raj. I could see Adipte Guru Raj saying. I don't know whether he was the first person. Tanya, Jay Kumar, Anuj. Everyone now is getting on to it. Perfect. Great. So the black portion what you see on the front portion of the eyeball is called the Karniya. We have got that part right. So what is the white portion called then? Do you know what the white portion is called? The black portion. Yes, Kleera, Kinshukh. Perfect. You deserve a special price for that. So sorry to interrupt you. I could not mention this that Kinshukh is from NPS Raja Jeenagar and both ma'am and sir are alumni of NPS Raja Jeenagar. So three cheers to you, sir. Great. Thank you. It's nice to know that. And yes, it's always nice. We feel very nice and patriotic about being output of NPS Raja Jeenagar. Those very long years of Raja Jeenagar where we used to go and come and it feels very nice. Ma'am was just one year senior to us. We are schoolmates. We don't have that interaction much between one class and the other class. But an academy like yours gives you a lot more openness and ability for people to know each other across sections too, which is a wonderful thing. Nice of that. So this Kleera is a white portion basically. Yes, fantastic. Okay. So now we'll come to one important aspect about this. You know, the cornea, which you said is a black portion, you know, is a very, very intricate part. It is the first portion of the eyeball through which light actually bends. You all know, you know about refraction, right? So you all learn the optics about refraction when a light passes from one media bends into the other media. So the light has to get focused into your eye for you to be able to see anything and everything. So that bending of light takes place right at the first interface, which is the first interface, the cornea. You know, so the most of your bending of light that takes place actually takes place at the cornea. And that is why your cornea is the seeing portion of your eye. Okay. It appears black, but is it black? What is the, what is the real color of the cornea? It appears black. I've given you a clue that it appears black, but it is not black. So I want you to tell me what is the color of the cornea? Okay. Brown, dark brown. They are like brown, transparent, Momita. Wow. Fantastic. Fantastic Momita. You hit it there. It is transparent. The cornea has to be transparent. If something is opaque, it has a color. It is brown, black, whatever be the color. How would it allow light to pass through? Is it possible? Physiologically, is it possible? When you have something totally opaque, can it pass through? If it is colored, it might pass through, but it does not pass completely, isn't it? You have a dark glass, a tinted glass, and you have a white glass. You just keep both of them and which allows more amount of light to pass through. The transparent one, right? So therefore it needs to be transparent for it to pass light completely. So that's the beauty of nature. It gives you a cornea, which is totally transparent. But then why does it appear black? Okay. It appears dark brown. It appears gray. Some people, it appears bluish. The eye appears bluish. Eyes, eyes, eyes appears bluish. Why? Why are we seeing a color to the cornea when we don't have a cornea such that the eye inside is black? Okay. Contact lenses. We don't wear contact lenses. Only people who wear contact lenses, yes, it looks. But what is it that gives color to the eye? Because of the iris. Yes. Fantastic. Arthi, fantastic. You've got a great bunch of all medicals lined up right there. I can see that. More relevant now seeing what is happening around. We need more people to assist you. True. Absolutely. And you've got a good bunch of kids that lined up ready to take it up because they seem to be knowing a lot of terminology already. So the iris color, yes, gives color to the eye. So there is this iris, which is nothing like a diaphragm inside, which actually allows the light to come inside and go. It regulates the amount of light that is coming inside and going. So that is what is the one that gives you color to the eye. It could be dark brown to black and that's why it appears brownish to black and different colors of the eye come. And then this iris is nothing but kind of, you can imagine the parnia. So throughout that there is this iris and there is a space in the iris. You can see it in my photos there, in my slides right there. One of the slides that picture that shows you that basically a colored iris and the center of it is a dark black round area. What is that dark black round area? What is it called? Through which actually the light enters in. Yes, that is a pupil. That is the area which is actually regulates the amount of light. So the pupil is nothing but a space which is actually regulated by the iris. So the iris tends to contract, the pupil becomes small. If the iris dilates or relaxes, then the pupil becomes larger. So what is your pupil? It is just a space there. And through that the light enters. Once light enters through the pupil, then what does it hit? What does it mean? What is the most structure that it means inside? Which allows further focus of the light to go inside. Retina, retina, retina, retina. Retina go door hai. Aah lens, you got it right. Perfect lens. There is a lens inside the eyeball. There is a nice convex lens. So all of you have studied convex lenses, non-cave lenses, isn't it? You know, all the complete, how that image is formed on a convex lens, you know, you keep it so far, it forms a real image, keep it near it, it forms a virtual image, all that thing, you know, very perfectly, isn't it? So that's what this lens is. And you have a convex lens and a small thing, which I'll give you here. Can you guess what is the power of the lens which is there inside your eye, roughly? Different powers are possible in different people. It has got nothing to do with the glass power that you're wearing, okay? You might be wearing one power, two power, four power, 10 power, with respect to average human being, as this lens has a power. And that's why it allows us light to focus in. Can you guess how much could be the power of the lens which is there inside? Inside the lens which I'm talking inside. I know this doesn't come into, inside the scope of your curriculum, but it might be a good trivia to note that. Okay, six, you got a near 2D, 2D, what do you mean by 2D? I don't get that, perfect, I'll give it out. It's almost close to 20 diopters of power, you know? 20 to 22 diopters of power is the amount of lens. So the lens is so strong. It's so 20 diopters of power which allows light to focus, you know? So 20 diopters, you know, which basically means that if you have an object at infinity, it will focus the light into your eye, basically. In terms of if you probably take a metric system or one of the bit, it would focus the light exactly at around close to 20 to 24 millimeters. And that is where exactly your retina is. Your retina is nothing that finally, the kind of a film, it's a photographic film which captures all the light coming into your eye. So that is exactly at around close to 20 millimeters from the lens, okay? And overall length of the eyeball is about 20 to 24. And that is why you need the 20 diopter lens to focus the image onto your retina. So once the image is focused on the retina, this is like a photographic film, you know? It's got all the processing unit. All of you know pixels, these stand better. You understand everything in pixels, isn't it? So you get completely similar to that, a pixelated image, okay? And what image is this? How is this image? Is it a real image? Is it a virtual image? What image is this? Inverted, yes, super. You all know the contact lens, convex lenses, optics, fantastic. It's a real inverted image which is formed in the retina. So, but why aren't we seeing everyone inverted then? I should be seeing Tushar upside down. I see him perfectly straight, isn't it? So yes, the brain, fantastic. Aviral Vansal, fantastic, I like that name too. So the brain helps you to process that image back, you know? So that's the beauty of the brain. It takes whatever is there on the left-hand side. It takes the image, the brain, you know, all the fibers from the left side goes to the right side. All the processes that is there in the upper portion of the retina goes to the lower portion of the brain. So it's all crisscrossed so that everything gets inverted. And then the brain processes it and knows that basically this is this. It is real. It is at this particular distance and it gauges, gives you the depth analysis and all these things. So this is in a nutshell how the eye or the optics of the eye actually is working. So when we saw these two things, you know, the few things we need to know straight away here is some of you land up with having to wear glasses. What we need to wear that additional power glasses sometimes to see, you know, that is because the light is not getting focused on the retina. If the light gets focused in front of the retina, what do you call it? Yes, myopia and hypermetropia, perfect. So what is, if light gets focused in front of the retina, what do you call it? Do you call it myopia or do you call it hypermetropia? I have both. Sid, I need to talk to you. You have both, not many children have both but that could be a reason you have both. Generally not, okay, short-sightedness, myopia. Yeah, myopia is short-sightedness, wherein the light gets focused in front of the retina. If the light were to get focused behind the retina, that is called as hypermetropia or long-sightedness. So it's very simple, if you have myopia, it is focused already in front of the retina, which means what? The light has got over-focused, isn't it? You want it to focus on the retina but now it is a convex lens in front and it has already focused too much in front of the retina. So it has over-focused. So what do you want to do now? What kind of lens do you want to give so that it will start focusing now on the retina? Concave, wow, fantastic. So that, you know that normal lenses convex, it is focused X-off to make it diverge. You need to diverge that a little bit. So you need a concave lens and that is what your minus perverts are all about. Anyone wearing a minus pervert glass are actually wearing a concave lens. And hypermetropia, it needs to focus more. It is not getting focused that much. You need to add that addition of convex power. So that is why a plus power or hypermetropia power is called as a convex power. So it's very simple. So anyone wearing minus power means it's a concave lens. It's a myopia. Anyone wearing a plus power means convex power. Now these kinds of powers can come and form because of one, that could be a hereditary influence. Your parents may be having power. There could be a possibility you will develop at some point of time. Apart from that excessive digital usage, excessive usage of mobiles. Now when we were students, basically we didn't even have a phone, we didn't have a laptop, we didn't have anything. Apart from the books, you know, in spite of that we are wearing glasses. So you can imagine, you people now, especially now more than ever, you are on an online platform that you need to be working, reading online, studying online, attending Centrum Academy online, attending classes online, isn't it? Apart from that, you are busy in your mobile either through games or through YouTubers or through animes or through many, many things including learning and entertainment. So on average, I'm sure how many hours, frankly, I want to find kind of an opinion here. On a day, especially during these times, how many hours or each one of you spending on your digital interface? Be it mobile, be it a laptop or a laptop all put together, okay? Seven, 10 hours, two to three hours. Who's that great? Wonderful. That's great, I really should appreciate. Two hours, wow, that's fantastic. What do you do the remaining hours then? I'm confused there. But I will take it, the 10 to 12 hours, yes, that is... No, sir, it was just me being surprised at the person who said to us. I actually do it for 10, I don't know why I just... No, great, okay, yeah. So 10 is there, eight to 10 hours, it almost happens. Eight hours is just given, absolutely, and 10 to 12 hours it is. So what happens during this process when you're having a digital device that's very close for a long time? Then what is called this concept of accommodation that happens? We learned about the pupil, isn't it? It shrinks and opens. Anytime that you are seeing a close object, whenever you need to see a close object, our eye is tuned to see an object beyond six meters or six meters and more. That is when the eye is at rest. That is why when you come to a doctor to check up the vision chart which is tested is basically tested at a six meter distance to get your eyes into a more relaxation. Beyond that, anything that you're seeing, four meters, five meters, three meters, one meter, anything closer as 33 centimeters that you might be seeing is adding extra strength to your eye because your eye is doing that extra function of accommodation. It is doing that extra work to see that. So when that eye does that extra work, it's like creating an extra muzzle power. There are ciliary muscles which we call which create this kind of ability for the pupil to contract and the muscles to focus and in order to allow the lens to expand. This lens inside the eyeball is something like a elastable substance which can slightly become bigger and smaller. And so when it needs to see more, it needs that additional power. So it tends to become more convex, allowing you to see more. So when this happens over a continuous time and the eye doesn't relax in between, you can develop what is called as eye strain, headache, what we call as ascanopia. You can then start developing power even if you don't have one. In the earlier lockdown when we had to just give you a glimpse of what it can cause. We had a child, just seven years old child came with a sudden blurring of vision inability to see. The child had almost developed a squint. You know, what is a squinted? Where in one eye deviates to one side. You know, the child had developed a squint to one extent and then it had gone on to develop a power of as much as minus six in straighter. So that much worse can be the situation. The powers can go erratically. There are children which were tested last year and have come for test again and powers have shot up like, you know, what was minus one is now minus 2.5, minus three. So it's like jumping powers. This is not good. This is certainly not good because by the time you grow up, you become almost like 12, pass out your 12 and then get into provisional courses, finish your provisional courses, your power could increase exponential which is extremely dangerous for the eye too. You could land up with other complications and risks and all those things. So we need to try and keep the power as much as possible. So the simple thing to do for that is basically whenever you're working for long hours, observe this 2020-2020 rule which basically means every 20 minutes, take a short gap, look at an object 20 feet away and blink your eyes rapidly for 20 times. By doing that, you're improving prevention of the dryness which can also have and you're relaxing the eye from looking from near to far, basically. As a giveaway, I might want the shot to probably have a slide which basically brings in that 20-minute pointer and the 2020-2020, I will send you a slide, put that slide every 20 minutes in the middle of your schedule and ensure that children can do it because none of them are doing this. Even if you- Yes, sure, sure. We will be, it's a good suggestion. What we'll do is during our classes itself, we can incorporate it. Correct. It's a great way and it then brings in a habit. You know, this then becomes a habit once it is started off. Right. A minute of every 20 minutes there, then looking at a far object. This far object needs to be ideally something six meters. So not sitting inside your room and just looking at, you know, just a mirror on the room or a father's object in the room. You need to look outside the window, look at a far object on the horizon as far as possible and then keep your attention on that for half a minute and blink your eyes rapidly. It needs to be rapid blink. Like this fast blink like that. Keep blinking, keep blinking, keep blinking. Keep blinking, keep blinking, 30 times. And then relax. You can do a little bit of farming at this time. All of you can do that now. Come on, just rub your hands. Get a good amount of warmth into your palms. Get it nice, warmed up and then gently give pressure over your eyes. Allow your palms to be over your eyes and give a little bit gentle pressure. Just a gentle pressure. Allow it to just sink inside and then release. That kind of completely improves the circulation you arrive on. You're giving that little bit compression with warmth and relaxing so that all of the blood flow is going to get better. You're going to feel a lot of refreshed and that is going to take you much better. Another important tip you might want to do is if you're using a mobile screen, a tab or a laptop, basically, ensure that it's not kept very high or very low. You know, I have seen that including my daughter when she's attending on the tab. She's always keeping the tab down and she's just looking down like that. These things, if you do that at that position, you're looking at the bed and doing it, you know, ensure that you are on a table, a chair, add propriety with your back, chair, back, chair, and you should be able to look straight and work during these. Otherwise, these will lead to a lot of problems like neck pain, back pain, shoulder problems, ponder ladders, and a whole sort of problem from leg pain to depression sometimes. So really want it, depression, maintenance of posture is extremely important when you are studying. It gives you more ability to concentrate, understand, and relax. Then your mind is working. You know, if your body has to also work like this, like that, and everything, your body has to work on some way, your mind has to work some other ways. It's like, you know, getting two things on an opposite sector, which will not happen. It will not give you the best results. So your ergonomics is very important. And then maintain the top of your screen 20 degree below your eye level. It should not be above. It should not be looking like this. Your neck should not go up or down. It should not be below also. So just perfectly 20 degree so that the moment you're just looking at the screen, your only your eye needs to do that little bit of movement. There is very less amount of neck movement that is actually needed there. So these are the two main things you might want to have. Give a lot of cold pack in between. Don't wash your eyes. Very many children also have this small problem of allergy, itching, roughing and things that, and they just want to, they feel irritable. So what they do, they just go to the washroom, nicely splash a lot of water on their eyes. That can make the eye even move, right? So to prevent that, just give a little bit good amount of cold pack. Like, you know, take a good cold water cloth, wet it well or a kerchief. Just close your eyes and keep it over your eyes for two minutes. Give you a lot more relaxation than basically like washing your eyes frequently. Do have a good amount of hygiene, washing your eyes. As madam said, COVID can spread even through the eyes. We see a lot of people with conjunctivitis infection and then landing up as positive. So basic hygiene of the eyes is extremely important. Wash your eyes, face, morning, evening, twice, but intermittently just give a lot of cold pack. Then don't forget to keep a water bottle next to you during your classes. Very, very important, hydrate yourself sufficiently. The short brain, which will probably come in every 20 minutes during that time, ensure that you do that, look far away, blink, and immediately sip a glass of water and then get back into your class. I think these basic tips will ensure that most of you are very safe. The moment you notice that you're finding some difficulty to see distance object, how do you identify that? Ideally in the classroom, then you could go, you could be easily spotted out, generally be used to identify because children would sit in the last bench, there would be a rotation of students or something like that, and then the teacher, they finally identify that they're not able to see or the teacher identifies that the child is not seeing something which is written on the board. Now, everything is online, everything is seen clearly, can be zoomed up, magnified, anything. So there is very difficulty, very little scope for us to identify this problem. What we need to do is, while watching TV on a news channel or something like that, the small prints are written, basically, maintaining at least minimum of four meters distance, four meters distance, and stand there and try to see the smallest letters and see whether you can see. If someone in the family can read it and you cannot read them, then that is an indication that you need to come for an eye checkup immediately. No one will tell you to go for an eye checkup, you need to be as alert to know that you are having an eye problem and you need to point it out to your parent and tell them that, you know, I'm having this difficulty, I would like to have an eye checkup. Do not hesitate because small things when seen early can be avoided. Even bubbles can be avoided, like minus bubbles or plus bubbles that are there can be avoided. So I've taken too much of the time, but I thought these things were very interesting considering that you have students there and it was fantastic interacting with them. Thank you. Thanks, sir, thanks. Many things I also came to note today and the way you were explaining, I was kind of envious with you and, you know, I was always, you know, imagining all this while that why did I not pick up, you know, medical science in the first place and why did I, you know, actually go to IIT instead? So anyways, thanks for those inputs and some I have noted down and probably I will share with the kids as well and will incorporate it in the classes but you have suggested so that we are also concerned about their long exposure to the screen and all and we'll try our best to help them. So thanks for that. And now moving forward, ma'am, we will be, you know, discussing a little bit about the sleep pattern which is very important and very critical for students. And if possible, please advise our students who are going to face the competitive exams and I know because of anxiety, they are not sleeping well or they think that sleeping, let's say only five and a half and six hours is good enough. I'm saving some time to prepare for my exam and all those things, there are lots of misconceptions around sleep. So if you can just guide us on that. Thanks, ma'am. Can I share screen to say? Yes ma'am, I have made you co-host, please share. Yeah, sure. So while my PowerPoint loads, I've just made a few slides just to wake up people. So can I have on the chat box from people, how long do you think it's necessary to sleep? So how long do you think it is necessary? One second. I'm not able to view the chats. So how many of you? Yeah, I'll tell you ma'am. So are you able to see that now? Yeah. So people are saying seven, eight hours, eight hours, eight maximum people are saying eight. Somebody has also said seven. And yeah, eight to nine hours, people are saying. There are some who want 10 hours sleep, I can see that. So how many are actually sleeping for eight to 10 hours? I can very well tell you not for good reasons. And I know because I have been very recently in this phase, recently as in two decades back. So I can tell you most of them would be busy in Champions League or IPL late night. So that's- Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. My son also does this. So anyway, what I want to tell you in the probably next seven to eight minutes, we spend about one third of our lives sleeping, okay? There were some people who slept less. Even our prime minister sleeps very less. Some people claimed it was a waste of time, but physiologically we know sleep is very important. So other things which I want you to know is the amount of sleep varies from person to person. Most of you are too young to figure out how much, but I would say between seven and eight hours is a good number. You sleep more than that your parents are not going to let you because you are in the very important years of your life. So if you look at your younger cousins or siblings, they might be sleeping for a long time, but as you age, the need for sleep decreases. And if you look at your age group, which is 14 to 18 years, like I said, seven to eight years is a, eight hours is a reasonable time duration to sleep. So Dr. William Dement who was called the father of sleep medicine actually said that you're not healthy unless your sleep is healthy. So it's very important to get sleep. More so when you're appearing for an exam. Like Tushar said, I also remember sleeping for one or two hours before an exam. And then I wouldn't care what the result was. I would say, oh, let me get this over with. It's happened throughout MBBS. But now I realize that a good night's sleep before an exam is very important. So that's one thing which I wanted to convey. And why should we follow something called sleep hygiene? We know that Edison, the 24 or seven work schedule and gadgets have ruined our lives. Edison is credited to one of the greatest discoveries, but it has also destroyed our day night cycles and so has our gadgets. So we have to have a regular sleep wake routine for us to be able to function properly. So what is good sleep hygiene? At least seven hours of sleep per night, even on weekends or during vacations. Going to bed only once when sleepy. There's a caveat to this I'll tell you in a moment. If you don't feel sleepy after 20 minutes, get out of bed, establish a relaxing bedtime routine. And this is very important. You should cut out bright light in the evenings. I know this is the wrong thing to say to exam going students, but what I would request is, first of all, what you need to do is to identify what is your best performance time. If you are performing well during early mornings, if you're a lark, go to bed early, get six to seven hours or eight hours of sleep, wake up in the morning and study. If you're an owl, you can burn the midnight oil, but again, make sure you get your, at least six to seven hours of sleep. No electronic devices. After you're logged out from the class, please don't pick up your mobiles. And like Tushar was saying, IPL is not there. Other leagues are going on. So please don't keep on watching. And for heaven's sake, don't put your cell phones under the pillow. All parents know what's happening. In the middle of the night, you're getting up and checking scores. And that is enough for sleep to get disrupted. That amount of blue light is actually enough to spoil your sleep. Have a healthy diet, no junk food before going to bed. And a warm shower before bedtime, a glass of milk, which all of you don't like. I'm sure my kids also don't like it. Glass of milk before bedtime promotes sleep. And avoid caffeine consumption. Late evening exercise to be avoided. You can exercise in the early evening. So these are some things which I wanted to convey to you. And please remember that sleep helps in consolidating what you have learned. There are stories of pianists who have practiced the piano before going to sleep, did not get it right. And after eight to nine hours of sleep, they got the notes perfectly right. So it is very important to sleep because the brain is not actually sleeping. New neuronal connections are being established when you're sleeping. New synapses and blocks of learning are established. So if you learn and go to sleep, it'll get consolidated. So for heaven's sake, don't give up on sleep. That's all I would want to say. Thank you. Thanks, ma'am. Those are very insightful thoughts. And actually, I know the college life we all have gone through. And this is exactly opposite to what we have done in our lives. And the repercussions we have faced during our professional lives when it becomes very difficult actually. And then there's some body weight going out of control and multiple other things happening. So we learned our lessons and we were exactly, we were not holier than these people, as we say it. And we have faced the repercussions. So my also recommendation from my own experience, I would say that do whatever, but don't cut down on your sleep regime. So that's very, very important. So going further now and talking about the thing which both... Before I continue on that, if I may just add on sleep, wonderful point that Madam pointed out, this is a practical thing that happened to me. Ten standard, our board exam, actually. And everyone reckons and sorry, everyone reckoned and I was with a very confident one of the top people sure to get a center. For some reason, I didn't sleep well that night and I was suddenly worked up for some reason. And the next day, it was something like, very obvious things like construction which was so obvious was completely blank. I was completely blank to what was there. And I was absolutely zapped that many things which were so obvious didn't even strike for me. This happened and I finally landed up just coding 74. So this just happened to me and it was there. And I just think that the next when I had to take 12 that was different story, but this happened to me. So this is real takeaway from what Madam has said. So thanks for that experience sharing as well. Now guys, we will talk about Dr. Venkat is an ophthalmologist. Ma'am is a pulmonary into pul... Sorry, I can't even pronounce the terms are so difficult. So pulmonary sciences. So this is first thing which we want to bring, draw the attention to. And hence now we will talk about the medical science of the stream. And when I was studying biology, now I have a very great regret when I look back at my own career that I keep on fighting with my dad saying, why did you not encourage me to pick up medical science? And he said, I neither pushed you for engineering neither for medical science, I myself was not aware. So hence in retrospect, I feel that, hey, could you, if we had these options known to us or there are some biases and I can see during my classes as well, if you even go to the audience and ask a, which is the favorite subject and you can see the hands going on in favor of some social science and mathematics and all that. And the moment the subject biology comes for discussion and then everyone says, okay, there's so much of memorization memorizing and all that. So now we would like your, you to expert view on all the questions which we will be now taking up and discussing with you. So the first thing which I would like to know from Dr. Winkit is that, sir, can you just share the reason why did you pick up this particular field? Because most of the 10th graders, I am telling you, this is the common question which I also faced that how to decide between let's say, you know, science in the science stream, let's say someone has made his mind or made her mind for sciences, then whether someone should pick up medicine or engineering and things like that. So you can share from your experience, your own life experience, what made you pick up this topic and then maybe you can just comment on how to go about picking up the stream, yeah. I think this is something which every child from 9th, 10th standard have to start figuring it out because it is a little more complex now because you have lot more streams and more narrowing of elements like computer science and electronics and other things which help you or basically even many other life sciences which you have where you can actually straight away get into including like for example, now IISC gives you that after 10th, 10th and 20th, I think after 12th, you can do an integrated course straight away. So those options are there now which we were with which was not available to us at that point of time. But to be frank, it took me some time to figure out that I had an inclination for medicine. Up to 10th, I almost was sure that like, I wanted to be someone to be an architect. So that was my kind of inclination by up to 10th but just to keep it as a more broad-based to give more options to myself, I took a PCME. So at that particular time, I was not sure that yes, I'm going to be architect for sure. Yes, if I had a very high passion and wanted to do something only that, I might have still probably just taken a PCME or a PCME or something like that and then gone ahead. But then I just wanted a little broader outlook and just to keep myself open, I took a PCME for so slow. So the one point of take is supposing if you're not very sure of what you want to do, it may be good just to go ahead with the PCME stream because you then will tend to figure out during your 11th standard as to which way you want basically want to go. And then soon immediately, I realized that, yes, I had a lot of inclination towards medicine because I started learning more human biology. So when you're learning biology, if you're going ahead and learning biology, many of them feel that biology is boring but you will suddenly start appreciating some form of biology. It could be a botanical science that you may be interested in. It could be animal studies that you might be interested in. You may be very bad at human biology but you might suddenly be doing very good when you're probably reading more about reptiles or some kinds of animal biology, you might be able to be very interested in it. So that might give you an idea you're more likely to have some kind of interest in that basically. If you start liking human biology very much, keep your mind open if you basically might want to take up medicine in a bigger perspective basically. So that's how my interest started on. And then I realized that, yes, I would want to do medicine and that's how it basically kicked in. Yes, you have a lot of career counseling and many aptitude ways by which you can try to know which inclination or which angle you might want to do these days. But the primary thing should be your interest to want to go ahead and serve people. I think that should be there, a people loving person. So try to find out basically between yourselves basically whether you are a people loving person, whether you are only a gadget loving person. Most of you are automatically gadget loving people nowadays but then find out within yourself if you didn't have the gadget with you how much amount of time you would want to spend with people, talk to people and know whether it makes a difference for you. If somebody has a problem, would you like to call them and ask them what is that problem? If you have that bit of element that yes, I would like to ask someone what is that problem and address their problem. If you would want to do that, I think a simple way is just pick on to PCMV and then take the next step forward as to whether you might be interested. Thanks, sir. Thanks for those guidance. Ma'am, the same question I would like to put forth to you as well because many people would have different decision points and hence what made you probably pick up this particular stream and then typically the perception which is floating around and which I also encounter probably when I was in ninth and 10th grade, I had the similar notion that there is lots of fact-based learning in the stream of biology and you have to memorize a lot of stuff. Unlike mathematics where you have a problem statement to solve immediately, the problem to solve in medicine or biology comes a little later in life. So how do you help students cut through this notion that, hey, this is not only about factual learning, there is lots of more things to that. Yeah. So to start with, I'll tell you I wasn't a very biology person though I wanted to become a doctor. I almost strayed into engineering at the end of 12th standard. Only a Dhamke from my mother that there's nobody to help so you better take medicine pushed me into it. But I was always a people's person like Dr. Venkat said. I wanted to give back to society. I wanted to serve people and that's the reason I decided to take medicine. Now maybe bust this myth for you. It's not all mugging up in medicine. There's a lot of factual learning to do. But the thrilling aspect is you apply all that you have learned and you don't have to remember if I'm learning 4,000 pages of a textbook. I don't have to remember all the 4,000 when I see a patient. Just like the worldwide web, I have to search and retrieve from my cash what is required for the patient. I'm sure that's there in every field. But in medicine, we start learning on the human body. We start with a cadaver and then go on to a live person and believe me, we are learning throughout our lives. Even today I learned from a patient, tomorrow I learned from a patient. So it is a passion which drives you. Of course there's a lot of grilling to do, lot of sleepless nights to spend, lots of heartbreak when you lose patience. But at the end of it, it's worth it. It gives you a kick when you have saved lives and when you've made a difference. Sometimes it's not medicines. Most of the times I tell my students that medical advice is not only a prescription. You need to talk to the patient, get into their shoes. It sure takes a lot of emotional toll. But then at the end of it, it gives you a feel good which probably, I think nobody else know the profession will experience. We go through a lot of pain, but it's worth it for those who are getting into it for the love of serving humanity. If it's just to add a string of degrees, no, I would not recommend it. It does involve a lot of pain and hard work, but it's worth it like I said. Yeah, and especially when we are seeing things around us and I was very touched by a couple of videos which are anyway circulating. The way the doctor's fraternity is coming on, you people are on the frontline actually. And then you are wearing all the brunt of whatever, since we as humans have done in the past. So thanks anyways for that. And I sincerely wish few of our students are encouraged enough to take this daunting task of fighting death right from the front. So thanks, ma'am. Moving on to the next question to Dr. Venkat now. Sir, you picked up ophthalmology. So I'm sure there are lots of specializations after you do your undergrad. So what made you pick that up? And can you throw some light on how does a, let's say typically in a common parlance we call an eye doctor, eye doctor's day is, and what are the points which attract someone towards ophthalmology? Yeah. Yeah, great. So on that point of view, when you talk about medicine, medicine is very interesting. How many of you have read Sherlock Holmes? How many of you have read Sherlock Holmes? Can I see that there? Sherlock Holmes, me, me, me. Okay. Are you all great fans of Sherlock Holmes? Do you go ahead and read more and more all the stories and try to keep reading over and over again every time, even today, you take a Sherlock Holmes book and read it. Basically, you will find something new in it. You will find something interesting in it. You will find something that you have read but not observed in it. So this is what is medicine all about. So that's beautifully the way because it's written by a doctor. So it comes in like that. And this is what is a deductive science of medicine. So when you're in medicine, you are an engineer. You are a lawyer because you need to talk to the patient and convince the patient. So you are a lawyer there. You are a professional. You need to know your science extremely well. You need to have all the soft skills that are also required. And you need to be having that deductive science like Sherlock Holmes. So you're always on the Sherlock Holmes kind of a vigil there. Basically, so these are all the lovely things that can happen to one profession. No profession can give you a summation of all the things put together and you need to basically be good in everything about it. Basically, not that we are all good in everything but we want to be at least good in everything about it. So that is how basically gives you that kickstart for me to do something more basically. And as far as ophthalmology is concerned, it's a wonderful science basically. Just imagine this much smaller portion of the eyeball but it has itself about 10 different subspecialties in it. Like I'm a retinal surgeon, which means I'm someone who's managing the retina. The retina is just about 10 microns thick basically. And we need to operate on that 10 microns structure, layer by layer. So you're basically operating on a layer which is basically two microns. So you need to feel something. There is something on the retina sticking to the retina. You need to remove that without damaging the retina. So two microns thick and you need to do that basically. Aren't you a robot then? Aren't you getting that robotic precision of kind of work there? And that is not just in ophthalmology, it's in any science, be it even pulmonary science that madam is involved in or any science of medicine basically. You need to give that precision there basically. So there is a large amount of robotic science involved. A lot of you might be interested in robotics. The latest now we have the Darwin scene. Literally you are like Robo sitting there and operating. You have the Robo operating there and it gives you more micro precision and they will tell you basically literally that the surgeon is basically completely in a gadget. You all like playing those lovely video games very fast. Some of them are extremely quick at doing that. You could be one of the best surgeons actually for the future because the future needs such lovely robotic hands. Hands which are extremely quick, great position. You know, better than even your hands where the Robo will probably do the surgery but you need to be that person who's driving the Robo. You are the Robo there actually. So you are there sitting in what is called as a Darwin scene which is the latest robotic surgeries. You get abdominal surgeries, many kinds of surgeries. Eye is too small for too many big, big robotic instruments to go on. So still your fingers are the Robo still there as a matter of fact. But we do a lot of things like laser. It's so wonderful to be working with laser technology or you will learn about lasers. When you learn about lasers, the different effects can have and so fascinating to basically be working with the laser. So there are a lot of fields in medicine wherein you are also someone like a detective science, the physician, and you're also a surgeon. Doing both together. So you are making teachers life a little difficult. The moment you, you know, endorse video game playing because the next time I'm going to advise against playing a video games, they're going to give me a rebuttal saying that. I know, I know. The other day Dr. Venkat was saying that you can become a good surgeon. So hence I'm playing video games more. I know it might backlash. A good video game at certain times is good but don't make up use of it. But yes, there are very good scope for brain robotic surgeons. I totally get it. Yeah, so being, you know, from mechanical engineering myself, I know my supervisor there in IIT was working on microfluidics where in how to, you know, send, let's say, medicine to the cancer cells, only targeting cancer cells and nothing else. So that was something which was really fascinating to me. So moving on to the next question, ma'am would like to know that, you know, you studied MBBS and then you did your specialization and then eventually decided to become a professor in a reputed medical college. So that is another field which people can choose, I believe. So, you know, tell us something more about, you know, the being in medicine as well as academia. So why did you pick up in the, in the, let's say, in the profession of teaching medical science other than full-fledged, you know, practicing in some clinic maybe or, you know, in your own hospital or something like that? Yeah, so first of all, it's a misconception that academics don't practice. We have full-fledged practice apart from being academic. So it's a kind of double role which we are doing, yes. Advantages are I have fixed workers, I have a team whom I can hand over to when I leave for the day. Of course, I'll be on call for the whole night. If it is necessary, we take turns taking calls. But then in a teaching hospital, you are seeing as many patients as a private practitioner sees, for example, St. John's, we right now have about 900 COVID patients which we are taking turns managing. In my own ICU, we have about, I mean, in mine and critical care put together, we have almost 60 to 70 patients again which we are taking turns managing. So one thing which draws many people, especially women to academia, I mean, I may be a feminist here, but what draws women doctors to academia is one, is the fixed time hours so that we are able to balance family and professional life. And secondly, it's the joy of teaching. Every mother is a teacher, every father is too. But to teach is to learn twice. You keep on teaching people you are learning many times over. I am discovering so many things when I teach students. The third advantage of being in an academic setting is that you get to do a lot of research. You have a big patient population. Of course, we are not using them as guinea pigs, but we are learning from them and contributing to the scientific literature. Having said that, people in private practice are also doing extremely well on this. But as an academician, I get protected research time. Where I can go and study disease processes, I can study and come to conclusions about new diseases, new manifestations. One not so good thing for people who are going to take up academia as an option, is that it doesn't pay well. You can earn much being an academician, but my motto is that quality is more important than quantity and probably I could raise my children on values rather than on money. So it's good to be an academician. So good to hear that, ma'am. And I'm sure we have to imbibe those values. So those people who are going for medical science, so please do not go thinking that medical science is a great rewarding field. And that should not be the only criteria to decide upon. And what value system ma'am is talking about is the crux of today's discussion. Thanks, ma'am, for those insights. So now you talked about research. So that's one field in medical science itself. And I'm aware of lots of cutting-edge research going on. So I would like to know from Dr. Venkat on this. Typically, I know we need UG to get into a medical college. Post that typically, this is another misconception, rather let's not go into medical science because too much of study, long hours, and even long years. So can you throw some light on what are the typical career path of a medical student post school? So perfectly, you need to do your basic graduation in medicine, which is your imbibeers degree, to become someone in the medical field. Also, there are a few para-aligned fields. Like sometimes now you have pharmacology, you could directly do pharmacological sciences, biological sciences, other kinds of integrated sciences, which will get integrated along with medicine, basically. So you could take some of the biological sciences, get into genetics, as a matter of fact. My daughter is already kind of clear. She wants to do genetics, and she wants to do it in a cut eye, I see. So they are so very clear about sometimes, I just wonder where they get these thoughts and how clarity of thought that they get in. But it's wonderful if that stays on perfectly. Even if it doesn't stay on, it's still good. Having some amount of clarity and consciousness in it now makes a lot of difference the way you approach things, basically. And that will help you to tune yourself for no also whether I'm right in the right path or not also. So you need to do your MBBS and post MBBS, yes, then you have to take a competitive exam for your post-graduation. And that's a clear, real kickback kind of a situation. Because you have to go ahead writing a number of these exams, one after the other. And sometimes you're lucky to get into the first-hand attempt, sometimes not. But that is a period where you learn a lot. You learn a lot and sometimes you're also working. You could be working as a duty doctor and assistant doctor in some place. So you learn a lot from that. And then you then decide by then, like you have an interest in some specialty and then it gives you an open doors to go ahead and get into one or two kinds of specialty that you might want to do. Once you do one of these specialties basically, you will then certainly notice that the doing this specialty is just giving me an overview of that specialty. Okay. Now I need to go further deeper into that. So that is when you start requiring what are called as super specializations, which are needed, you then become a fellow or a fellowship in one or two aspects or a super specialization like a master in cardiac surgery. So then you have done your MD, then you go ahead and go for cardiac specialization on the go ahead and do your neurological sciences. You want to become a surgeon, neurosurgeon. So you become a neurosurgeon. There are some courses very, which offers you immediately after MVPS, a direct specialization you could become what is called as a DM in neurosurgery. Directly, there are few places which offer that, but many do not. So you may not get many seats there. So then you may have to just go ahead, do your what is called as general surgery, your masters in general surgery or masters in general medicine and then look at doing either cardiology and nephrology, which is basically either different aspects. You want to do kidney medicine or pulmonary medicine or those things. You want to probably get into certain fields like E and E or I, you could do that immediately after your MVPS and then take up some specialty, become a retina surgeon, glaucoma surgeon, some different specialties. So it doesn't mean that you're doing only that. You're a specialist in that, but you also get to do everything. Like I'm a retina surgeon, but I do all the other aspects of eye surgeries like cataract surgery, laser surgeries, everything. So you could choose what you want to do therefore and that is the way you keep learning as madam said, that's the best part about this profession. So, sir and ma'am, both anyone of you can just, because I had a misconception that, typically when you clear, let's say an exam like J, then you have based on your rankings, you actually, you can't really practice or you don't have a choice of streams if your rank is not that great actually. So this is how typically the Indian education system is working. So I am having this understanding that in the post grad level where you're going for specializations, there again, I don't know whether there is a choice for students to pick up one particular field and again, your fate is linked to the rank which you have got in the entrance exam. So is there some kind of a preference over some particular specializations over the others or something like that? Can you throw some light on that as well? Yeah, I would like to take this one. So first thing I would like to say is it is a long journey if you take medicine, you have to be aware of it. It's a minimum of 13 to 15 years from the time you join college, depending on like Dr. Venkat said, you want to super specialize, subspecialize, it takes that much time. There is an entrance test at every level. The government is trying to streamline into saying that they should do away with entrance test at certain levels because people are just studying for exams after exam. There is a thing called competency-based medical education or CBME which is coming up, which is being implemented. Our college is one of the nodal centers where we are doing it, where we are saying an Indian medical graduate should be practice ready. So far what is happening is after MBBS, you are nowhere, you have to do an MD. After MD, again, you probably have to do a DM or an, after an MS and MCH. So it went on and on. The focus is on trying to make somebody practice worthy at the end of everything because we need everyone. Yes. You're super specialist. The other day, I was having this, we were going through the talk with Dr. Devi Shetty gave in some forum where he was speaking about the need of the R in terms of how many medical personnel doctor and the next crisis going to be, is not oxygen or hospital beds, but lack of medical professionals. So yes, I really agree to that. And maybe the government, the policy makers would be thinking about in the same lines. So thanks, ma'am. That is again, a very important input. And then because of the interest of time, we are just cutting short on some questions because we have already covered few of them together. So the next question, which I would like to know from Dr. Venkatesh. Sir, also some bit ma'am had clarified in terms of the aptitude which is required for a medical profession. So what all traits, again, one is definitely you must be a people's man and you must be ready to serve the society and all that. But typically it becomes very difficult for a student to decide, even if let's say I am a people's man, I would like to maybe end up as a civil servant and do the same thing. So is there some indicators for something? I know this is a very difficult question for anyone for that matter. But some bit of light on this can help our students to decide upon whether I should be picking up medical science. And having said that, I'll tell you lots of civil servants are doctors themselves. So hence somewhere it is having a common point. Yeah, sir. So you said it right. You need to be the people's person first to basically look at either medical sciences or civil servant in some way or the other. The next most important thing is ma'am also bought it out. If you're appetite to learn. Okay. I think that that is something very, very essential because that will keep you going. That is as madam said, there is a hurdle in every step. And because there is a hurdle in every step, I have seen people sometimes doing very well, coming up, they are very good. They've come out from great colleges and everything basically. But somehow they don't come out very well because they're appetite for learning stops at some point of time. And then you are lost because this is a very, you should learn that this is a most dynamic period that is going to actually influence people directly. Yes. So therefore the science, the technology which is going at the back end is directly going to come and hit you here heavily. And if we are not abreast with that technology, you might suddenly feel that like, I'm not there, I'm not doing anything. I cannot give the services that are required basically. So that is very important. So I think an appetite for learning along with people's person. And yes, your general ability to pick up something like science in itself, understand the scientific processes. If you are interested in learning the scientific processes that are happening, I think that also gives you a little bit amount of an idea. If you're on the contrary, you're someone who is more into management liking. You want to basically organize things and get people, you're a people's person, but you are more into managerial kind of a person wherein you want to organize things, you want to execute things at different levels. You want to man manage people. You want to manage other people. You want to have a 10 people working under you basically. Then that calls for a different term. I see, okay. You should hear from the most important thing is you need to be that service giver. Okay. You know, that is the thing. You are the first point, you're the chapprasi, you're the common man, you're the worker, you're the doctor, you're everything for that. Yeah, perfect. So that also gives a lot of clarity. Now you're talking about lots of recent technologies which were there, so just taking the lead from there. Maybe I have an understanding that any field today is multidisciplinary. So even if it is medical science, I know a lot of mechanical engineering being there. You are talking about robotics. So it would be great if we can talk about some of the futuristic fields in medical science itself where our children now right now who are in 9th to 12th grade and then when they go and join the workforce of medical professionals, 15 years down the line, let's say, what are the areas they should be looking for right from now on so that, you know, they can prepare for those areas later on in life? Ma'am, sorry, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So one of the things which is catching up is interdisciplinary, like you said. Biotechnology is a good field. Genetics is a good field. The study of omics, proteomics, genomics is also a very good field, which is picking up. And in our own area right now itself, we do a lot of work with Indian Institute of Science. In fact, I am mentoring one student in a yoga college, another student in Indian Institute of Science. We are looking at technology transfer, how to bring gadgets into medicine because that's equally important. So medical electronics, biotechnology, genetics. Instrumentation. Yeah, instrumentation. These are all very interdisciplinary and good fields. It gives you as much kick as being a doctor. And you don't have that heartbreak happening. You see your things come into life and into action. Great, great. Thanks Ma'am. So what I take away from you is anyways, futuristic fields are going increasingly multidisciplinary. So we eat medical science in itself and you know, cannot stand alone. So there are lots of other fields. So even if let's say because of fate, because of choice you end up being in some other field, you might like to come back to medical science through these rules as well. So that's something which I have been trying for some time now. So that gives me a lot of, you know what do you say? There's some kind of happiness that yes, there is a possibility for people like us who ended up being an engineer, let's say, but still have some kind of a soft corner for the field can actually route ourselves back to that. So thanks Ma'am and... Biomedical engineering which you have brought in. It's a very great field actually, you know, a lot of... We have to deal with gadgets and things. So the latest gadgets have a lot of intricacies and newer technologies which needs to be built in, especially on the AI platform. Yes. You know, with now AI, which is basically exploding and there is a lot of options basically, you heard Google Sundaram Pichai basically tell about, you know, the AI as far as the eye is concerned, the eye is a window not only to the world, but it is a window to your body. So through the eye, we can identify a lot of things, including risk of stroke, risk of heart problems, risk of diabetes, diabetes related complications and many things actually. So there are AI studies which are now going on to identify that, you know, through looking at your eye, we can basically have some data that will tell you that 10 years down the lane, you could have a risk of a heart disease. So these things can come up in a bigger manner. And so therefore, a lot of technology people in biomedical engineering can completely be in this kind of line, which will give them immense satisfaction to work at that particular high level technology and be able to provide that data. Great. You know, that's great. So that makes me think again, so one common thing amongst our students is this, that they find a PCB combination is good option because they don't need to do maths. So do you think, you know, it should be treated as an escape route from mathematics or what is the involvement of, let's say, a subject of mathematics in, let's say, medical science? So, you know, generally I have seen that, you know, okay, I don't want maths. So let me take biology and this kind of approach actually, you know, is there a lot. So do you think it can be, you know, separated from any ways mathematical thought process would be required in every point of science which we do. So what do you suggest for those students as in, you know, what should they do? I think maths plays a very, very, very integral aspect of you coming up at a later point of time. So basically from the ability to get it as a detective science, you know, if you have to get that aptitude of a detective science, wherein, you know, you're seeing some symptom A, symptom B, you need to put the two together and try to see what are the other things that will basically match in together, although a lot of other experience and other things are the guiding principles basically. But to learn and get things like, you know, detective science becomes very essential when you have a broader outlook and an interest towards mathematics. So sometimes some of the great doctors are people who have excelled very well in mathematics. So people who have done very well in mathematics have been average in actually biology have sometimes actually been the better of the cream of the doctors. You will find that over a period of time because two parts, not only do they learn to manage and know medicine in real better manner, they are greater financially management people. So a good knowledge of mathematics is very useful because it gives you that little bit kind of a confidence control over cash flow, money flow. I see. I can tell that management of a hospital in any way. Basically tomorrow you want to have a hospital and that basically gives you a guiding forces to know, you know, how to manage. So these things come because of your basic interest in maths. So I think don't shun away maths. Everyone just take back from this is, yes, you need not be a centre-scorer in mathematics to be a best doctor. But if you are a centre-scorer, then there are greater chances that you will do much better in biology. Thanks, thanks for that, sir and ma'am. So now because of the positive time, we'll take some questions from the audience and then we'll conclude the session. So the questions must be pertaining to the medical science field and nothing else. So we are not going to discuss about COVID or anything else right now here. So if you have any question related to the profession, you know, so how to go about it or at what stage you should do what, then you can just unmute and introduce yourself and ask either ma'am or sir or both. Yeah, anyone will encourage people to, you know, ask questions to students. Yes. And those are people who are enrolled with us in the NEET program. I would like you to definitely pitch in and ask questions because, you know, you must have a very clear mind before you enter this world because you know it is going to be a very competitive world. And as sir and ma'am both have enlightened us that it is going to be a struggleful yet enjoyable journey. So let's, I will encourage all those students to please come up and ask questions. Yes. Anyone? Yes, can I ask something? Yes, who's this? Introduce yourself. Kinshu. Yes, Kinshu. Yes, go ahead. Please ask. I have not taken biology in my streams but I think I am extremely interested in biotechnology because the ability to connect any mechanical part and have to control their brains is actually something very interesting. The brain is almost like a functional circuit, right? Yes. How do you, what should be the basis for approaching biotechnology as a field and development in it? Yeah, you can get into biotechnology without having to, having done biology. So even if you have taken PCM or PCMC you can get into engineering colleges where you specifically have biotechnology as its course. So there are engineering in biotechnology or even like science in biotechnology. There is a direct master's course, a BSE followed by a master's course in biotechnology. You could pursue that field or a biotechnology engineering itself. So when you come to biotechnology engineering that your biotechnology field of engineering will have certain basic things about human biology interactions and ethics. So you really need not know human biology in full length but there will be a little bit amount of learning there which will get integrated in your engineering field itself to know as to that aspect of engineering which has to get integrated. Yeah, so just to add here, Kinshu, the biotechnology courses are offered by most of the IITs actually. So if you get a reasonable rank in that bracket so you'll be there in IIT, Kharagpur, in IIT, Madras, I have heard of. So there are other IITs also which offer a good biotechnology course and typically I have seen from, I'll just speak from my experience. There are two types of people who get into biotechnology. One who do not like it and then end up being an MBA through IMs or Wharton and Harvard and all that. Others who really like the subject and end up being in Johns Hopkins and other famous institutions. So very close friends of mine are in two different. So one is a financial analyst today because he ended up, hence I brought this point that in India you don't choose your own subjects. The subject chooses you. So hence if the subject chooses you and you don't like in the marriage is not perfect, you'll end up being a financial analyst. If the subject and you are perfectly married together then you end up being either a well-known academician or a researcher or whatnot. So hence, IITs do provide very good biotechnology courses. Yes. Yeah. Sir, who's this? Introduce yourself. It's Siddharth. Yes Siddharth, go ahead. So other than IMs and all of the few reputed institutes are there any good institutes for cardiology or any of the like these terms? There are a whole lot of places where you can do cardiology from. IMs, you also have, see basically what you need to do is when you choose a specialty there's something called an NIRF ranking. Yes, I was, yeah. All institutions. So go and look up the NIRF ranking and by the time you're finished with your MBBSC, cardiology comes after you've done your post-graduation. You do an MD and then you start doing cardiology. So while you are in your MD you will know which colleges are good. IMs is good. There is, in Trivandrum, you have Shri Chitra Tirunal Institute. You also have Jai Deva in Bangalore. You have lots of places where you can do cardiology but once you get into an MD you will come in touch. So you can go and check the NIRF ranking as well as there is a weak Hansar ranking. There's a time India today ranking. Yes. You can go and look at it. So this is the government approved, basically this is done by the Ministry of Education only. So I have put it in our website as well. So under medical science you can just have a look. There are 40 institutions. They have put their entire details about it. So if that helps, you can please interpret it. And you can understand, there are seven colleges from Karnataka also. So you can just do a search with respect to a state and you can see Karnataka, lots of colleges are there. So someone is there. There is some noise in the background. Yes guys, you're just mute yourself. So this is a Karnataka national institute of. So there is some noise from some mic maybe because just keep yourself on mute guys. Just a minute. I'll do that, mute for just a minute. Yes, so there is some, is this the noise disturbing you all also? I said it's coming to us. Yes, yes, yes. So some, all are under mute only. I don't know where from it's coming. Anyways, so I was talking about this. Please, you know, have a look on this website and we'll give you a lot of clarity in terms of the rankings of the college. There are lots of factors and you can just see on what basis these are ranked. Yes. Thank you, sir. Yeah, any other question? I have a question. Yeah, please introduce. I'm Sunaina here. Yeah, Sunaina, go ahead. Tell me. Approximately at what age can a doctor start practicing? The question is approximately at, approximately at what age a doctor starts practicing? See, you can start practicing after MBBS, okay? It depends. If you want to specialize, you probably wait until you're 28 or 29, provided you're getting into an MD immediately after MBBS. If, and again after MD, you can practice. If you want to do a super specialization, earliest you can get out is in your early 30s, but then like I told you, it goes on and on. So you can practice at every stage. You're more of a general practitioner at the end of MBBS. At the end of your post-graduation, you're a specialist. At the end of your post-doctoral fellowship, you're a super specialist. But then having said that, patient does not identify like that. You start treating them as a GP and you progress further. So earliest answer to your question is earliest after MBBS. So Sunaina, you can practice just after your MBBS. So yeah, be happy. Thank you, ma'am. Okay, yes. Anyone else? Any other question, please? Sir, I have a question. Yes, please introduce. Sir, I'm Raghuram here. Yeah, Raghuram. Which field includes biology and robotics? Which field includes biology and robotics? Okay, so sir was mentioning these days actually, every field is, but sir will like to tell you more on that, yeah. So certainly, as you said, there are fields where mechanical engineers have then taken up into specific areas of robotics and done work with biomedical robotics. Preferred are the biomedical engineers. But people who are in the biomedical engineering are the final endpoint contact, literally between the doctors and even the machine. So if you tomorrow come and give me a Darwin scene, I'm not gonna know how to operate it. I have never operated it. I don't know the machine concepts. For a simple, a small scan comes up in my hospital. I need to know how the scan works, what are the parameters the scan really gives me, what data I will get from it. Then later on, I will be able to give inputs to the biomedical engineer to say, you know, this data is coming like this, this data is coming like that. So I need some more precision in this data. So those things could be possible at a later time. But for me to operate that machine itself, I need a interface. And that interface is your biomedical engineer. So he's literally your guide to operate the machines and learn and make you do the surgeries. So we are doing the surgeries, but we cannot do these surgeries without the help of the biomedical engineer who is our interface. And other thing which I have heard, sir, you please correct me wrong. There's something called telemedicine or, you know, through, you know, internet based this thing, wherein a doctor sitting in US is also operating somewhere in, you know, in India and vice versa. So again, all these things will require intensive knowledge of, you know, handling of robots and, you know, precision engineering and all those things. So hence there are plethora of fields where you can think of robotics merged with medical science. And together they have, in my understanding, immense potential to reach out to the humanity and, you know, serve the humanity in the long run. So that, I think that answers your question, Raghuram. Anything else? Anyone else wants to ask any other question? Yeah. Can I ask a question? Please go ahead. Bharat, yes. Go ahead. Yeah. Like, sir, like, they told that, like, you know, Venkat doctor, like, sir, Venkat sir told that we can take PCMB for like a broader approach. But won't it become difficult trying to travel two parts? Like, not sure whether we're going to be in pursuing engineering or MBBS and, like, you know, trying to prepare for JEE means and need. And, like, at times we might end up nowhere. Like, I've heard seniors tell that, you know, I'm going to try to, you know, pursue an IIT, like, you know, try to clear JEE means, but I have a doctor as a backup. Yeah. See, it's like, depends on your interest lines. If you are quite sure at the end of 10 standard that this is what I want to do, then certainly it doesn't make sense in you spending time learning biology. And then, like, say, you know, I'm certainly not going to do medicine. Now, if there is someone who can basically tell me for sure that I certainly don't want to do medicine, then there's absolutely no second thoughts about it. You know, you go ahead and choose the stream that you want to do, take the CMC or PCME or PCM, that should be fine. But then if you are not sure at the end of 10 standard and you still want to give medicine a good thought, you still want to give medicine a good thought, you know, fine. It's like, say, you know, I'm okay, if I get IIT, I would like to do engineering, okay? But if I don't get IIT, I would like to do medicine rather than doing engineering somewhere else, you know? If you're probably somewhere in this space, you know, you might finally land up basically being a good doctor rather than sometimes, you know, getting in some engineering college which you're not very, very happy about, not very motivated to be there, then it's a different take, you know? So yes, studying for me, it is a different approach. Studying for IITJ is a different approach. So they are conflicting in certain ways. So certainly better to keep little bit amount of clarity there, get yourself a little bit sure whether you want to do medicine and you have an inclination for medicine and then take up the CMV. Or if you're not sure about or not decided yet, things will just strike you at a later time, you know? These things don't happen because you want to do it or think about it. Suddenly you start finding interest in something. So if you haven't found interest in anything, keep it, just keep your mind a little open, that's it. So I will also agree with sir in the sense, you know, typically if you are very clear, then it always helps to, you know, because not because of any other reason, but just to buy some more time for your stream in the 11th and 12th grade, because the syllabus is quite intense. So if you are very clear, I don't want to get into that. I only into engineering field. So please devote your time on PCM. If you're very clear that you know, I don't want to get into any engineering sciences for that matter. So devote your time rather in PCB. But having said that, if you have a backup of backup in the sense, you must take mathematics what we were discussing otherwise anyways. But if you take mathematics and management and you guys are smart enough to manage it well. So if you can do that, then let's say if you are in a fix that whether to go this way or that way, then let's say later in one year's time, you make a mind that no, I'm now decided to go on to engineering. Then you reduce your intensity of studies and preparation on one and then devote the time on the other and vice versa. So you can take that approach as well, right? So if you are not very clear in terms of what exactly to be done now, but then yes, it's not impossible. We have from NPS Rajajnagar itself and a few of the students who are sitting here, their elder brothers have done that both getting good ranks in this and that as well. It's not impossible. It's difficult, but with your sincerity and hard work possible again. So keep that in mind as well. Any other questions? So this is Shraddha here. Yeah, Shraddha. So I just wanted to know after you finish your MBBS if you want to full-fledged medical research, what's the route you have to take? I'll take this one. See Shraddha, what you could do is there are MD-PhD programs offered in the US. India is also offering in some places, but it's usually a clinical course. If you want to do full-fledged research, MD-PhD is a good program. Even in the UK, they allow a gap here for research followed by clinical medicine. You can directly do a PhD also. It's all possible. India is opening up probably by the time you guys finish. We might have MD-PhDs in India also. Okay. So I think we have taken lots of questions and we are also running out of time. So before we conclude, if you have any other question, you can put it across to me. I can forward it to both the doctor's panelists here and I will forward you the answers and responses as well because of the positive time. We will not be able to take more questions. So before we end, a piece of guidance, final guidance, given the situation outside and the way situation or ecosystem is changing. So a few words before we wrap up the session, both to ma'am and sir, you please give some guiding information or some guidance to all our students so that they can stay safe and really have good wellbeing. First, what I would like to say is, please be kind to yourselves. All of you are working under very difficult situations without a live peer group to interact with. You're talking through the computer, you're undergoing a lot of physical and mental stress. People around you may get infected or you might be seeing things on the TV or newspaper. Be kind to yourselves. Don't get fixated to one field. Please remember that you will make the difference to the field and not the field to you. Always have an option A, B, C. This is what I tell my son also who's in 12th. Don't get fixated. You can always make a difference. Take my own example, I strayed into medicine. I wanted to be a pediatrician, but I went into general medicine. I wanted to be an oncologist, but I went into becoming a pulmonologist and I'm happy today. So it is not absolutes. There are always crossroads where you can take your choice and make a difference by being good at it. So please don't get too intense and burn yourselves out. That's all I can say. Thanks ma'am, thanks for those words. Sir. Yeah, well said ma'am. I think these days I see a lot of children taking too much amount of mental strain, trying to, as you said, fixate into something or get over focused because everybody is telling them, come on, you should know what you have to do, what you need to become and things and all. There is a lot of things. Like remember that medicine and engineering is also not the only things. Yes. A lot of science outside, there are allied sciences like madam said, biotechnology, biomedical engineering, many other aspects basically. So there are a lot of science and field outside it basically. So if you are a nine standard and 10 standard, yes, you are part of this because you want to be engineering or something like that. Basically don't get away or get yourself or keep yourself averse that a commerce field is not good. You know, you have some of the great chartered accountants who literally run the company. They are the people who are behind the backbone of the companies basically. And you might just figure out that, as you finish your 10th, your interests in match in certain aspects of mathematics, your profit and loss and how those feel maybe so good that you might actually want to take a good amount of thought on taking commerce and do chartered accountancy. So look at these options also, don't as nine-cent standard at least, don't get fixated saying that, I need to do engineering and medicine. So that's why I say that there's a world outside. Some of you may be very good at speaking and you may become a great lawyer tomorrow. So there are great options available. Yes, getting into a kind of academy like Centrum, nine-cent standard itself gives you a lot of focus. I think that's where this buy-in basically gives you some kind of a directional and focus value but at the same time, keep your options much, much open. Enjoy life, enjoy life as your best. Certainly, thanks for those wonderful valuable guidance, sir. And I am of the same opinion that you don't need to fix one and then go behind it. Especially at nine-cent, 10th years you keep all your options open. We are hence the reason why we are doing this. So today is medical science and as a matter of fact, on Saturday we are doing on architecture. So those who are into architecture and building design and town planning and all that, you get a glimpse of another experience of one of the entrepreneur parents of our community. So she is going to talk about that as well. So we will do a series of such talks so that I know we understand that our parent community themselves have lots of valuable knowledge. And even if we take 1% of that out and transfer it to our children, I am very sure that they are going to get a lot of guidance and direction in life. So with those words, I am thanking Dr. Uma and Dr. Venkat with my corner of my heart and thanks, sir and ma'am, taking out time for our children, especially in these difficult times. And I hope all the children also got a lot of wider inputs for one particular stream. So with those words and a lot of gratitude will wrap up the session. So those students who have any question can forward it to me directly. I will seek the answers from both the experts and come back to you. With those words, I think there is no words to thank both of you. And good night to all of you and stay safe, stay healthy and make sure that you don't venture out unnecessarily for students. There is no necessity of venturing out at all. So hence, stay safe and God bless all of you. Thanks, sir and ma'am. Thanks, thanks. On that word, I would like to thank Tushar and also colleague him for the structured program that they all got in together. And I'm very envious that I was not having this opportunity in my school days. Your center marvels are extremely cracking. They are nutcrackers even at this time. I tried to follow it with my daughter and I will never be in the leaderboard if I was there. No, sir. The idea is to make sure the learning goes on. So leaderboard, I am sure all these people are smart enough to be something in life. So thanks, thanks for that. Okay, thank you, sir. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. Nice meeting. Thank you.