HEALTHCARE · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE · PATIENT EXPERIENCE Years ago, at a government hospital, I heard a surgeon say about a patient who kept asking him, "She must be a teacher." He was half-joking. She turned out to be one. It became my private joke: anyone who asks that many questions must be a teacher. I didn't know I'd think of that remark again. I think of it now because the patient who asks too many questions is no longer rare. She is in my family. Perhaps you have encountered her, too. A new kind of conversation My mother, my uncles, and my aunts are not medical professionals. When an unfamiliar symptom appears, they don't know the terminology, the likely causes, or the right questions to ask. But they have found ChatGPT and Gemini, and they talk to them like buddies. A symptom prompts a question, an answer prompts another, and nobody waits. Voice input matters most. They don't have to type a carefully worded query or know the medical term. They speak...
It was a wonderful experience raising and educating my children though I had nothing planned out but the way it shaped out was wonderful. I am a dentist by profession but I think I was a better teacher.
It so happened that I used to color maps of India and show to my son ten times a day for many days never realizing the impact. One day while watching weather forecast on DD news he started shouting" mummy India ka map India ka map". I was very impressed and then began our hours of togetherness.
Two of us would talk and notice all that went around us . We played all day and I would often run upstairs after my clinic to my overjoyed children.
Reading stories came very early in our house initially we saw pictures then it progressed to reading words and then sentences.Bed time was story time from Panchatantra to Ramayana to Indian mythology to stories and incidents all over the world. They knew about Pompeii ruins and casts and Paul Revere's Ride and Trojan horse much before they should have known.
Reading stories came very early in our house initially we saw pictures then it progressed to reading words and then sentences.Bed time was story time from Panchatantra to Ramayana to Indian mythology to stories and incidents all over the world. They knew about Pompeii ruins and casts and Paul Revere's Ride and Trojan horse much before they should have known.
This probably is one reason why both my sons are avid readers. For years even I never read anything but children's literature but today my sons advice me on reading books. I confess I did not read Harry Potter and chronicles of Narnia on their advice but going through their movies is enough is what I say.
India had just done a second a nuclear test in Pokhran, a city in Rajasthan and I would often tell them while travelling in car how first one came about, how Buddha had smiled (a code for successful nuclear test), who was the Indian PM then .
India had just done a second a nuclear test in Pokhran, a city in Rajasthan and I would often tell them while travelling in car how first one came about, how Buddha had smiled (a code for successful nuclear test), who was the Indian PM then .
To my utter surprise many years later he scored well by answering the toughest question by the quiz master by identifying the place where Buddha had smiled with Mrs. Indira Gandhi and an army official in visual round .
I never really had to teach them both by holding a book it was simply all oral with love and fun. As a child I detested history lessons but I encouraged them to know their past to see the present. All the way through I have encouraged them and to hear them encourage me today is fulfilment . Isn't that what we all strive for.
I never really had to teach them both by holding a book it was simply all oral with love and fun. As a child I detested history lessons but I encouraged them to know their past to see the present. All the way through I have encouraged them and to hear them encourage me today is fulfilment . Isn't that what we all strive for.
You are an awesome teacher. I had forgotten this story. Reading it here refreshed my mind!
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