I heard the word Cholesterol for the first time in life during my first year in Engineering College Hostel. I used to frequently order double egg Omelette with my meal. One day my friend Prakash Patnaik sitting right across the table told me to be careful as egg has a lot of cholesterol.
"Cholesterol ? What's the hell is that ?" I queried. Prakash went on explaining what it was and how it can clog the arteries.
In my Engineering college I had numerous friends who were Elephants of Knowledge. They were moving encyclopedias in a googleless iFree world. Now-a-days an answer might be a click away on a computer or a touch away on iWHAEVER. But I can proudly proclaim that in our REC (now NIT) hostel we had human computers.
One does not have to look beyond his next table in the dining hall or a few rooms down the hallway to find an answer to any subject under the sun. (There were a few GULIAs too who used to Kill GULLIES or harmless White Lies, but were ignored).
Coming back to cholesterol - those days there was hardly any awareness about it and its relation to heart disease beyond those who studied Biology or Medicine. In mid 80s there was this Gentleman who was then in his early 50s who complained to wife in the middle of the night MO CHHATI MAARUCHI (I am getting pain in my chest). "CHHATI MARUCHI NA TUMA GA**I PADUCHI (Your are getting a heartache, or your a*s is farting a lot)," - dismissed his wife, alluding it to her husband's chronic gas problems. She rolled over to sleep. Moments later when she shook her husband, he was no more.
Odisha those days lacked a decent facility for the treatment of heart related ailments. The best cardiac equipment our hospitals were equipped with were ECGs. Odias had to travel outside, mainly to Vellore for any major heart surgery, if lucky to be identified beforehand.
Things have come a long way. Thankfully, awareness has gone up these days. Even Middle schoolers are well aware of Cholesterol and beyond. Thousands of lives have been saved and many lives prolonged, dissatisfaction with the health care system not withstanding.
"Cholesterol ? What's the hell is that ?" I queried. Prakash went on explaining what it was and how it can clog the arteries.
In my Engineering college I had numerous friends who were Elephants of Knowledge. They were moving encyclopedias in a googleless iFree world. Now-a-days an answer might be a click away on a computer or a touch away on iWHAEVER. But I can proudly proclaim that in our REC (now NIT) hostel we had human computers.
One does not have to look beyond his next table in the dining hall or a few rooms down the hallway to find an answer to any subject under the sun. (There were a few GULIAs too who used to Kill GULLIES or harmless White Lies, but were ignored).
Coming back to cholesterol - those days there was hardly any awareness about it and its relation to heart disease beyond those who studied Biology or Medicine. In mid 80s there was this Gentleman who was then in his early 50s who complained to wife in the middle of the night MO CHHATI MAARUCHI (I am getting pain in my chest). "CHHATI MARUCHI NA TUMA GA**I PADUCHI (Your are getting a heartache, or your a*s is farting a lot)," - dismissed his wife, alluding it to her husband's chronic gas problems. She rolled over to sleep. Moments later when she shook her husband, he was no more.
Odisha those days lacked a decent facility for the treatment of heart related ailments. The best cardiac equipment our hospitals were equipped with were ECGs. Odias had to travel outside, mainly to Vellore for any major heart surgery, if lucky to be identified beforehand.
Things have come a long way. Thankfully, awareness has gone up these days. Even Middle schoolers are well aware of Cholesterol and beyond. Thousands of lives have been saved and many lives prolonged, dissatisfaction with the health care system not withstanding.
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