13th April year 2000 is a day I can never forget until I breathe my Last. It might have been Friday the 13th too ( I just checked and it was a Thursday) My Life was hit for a huge sixer into the boondocks as an Aussie would call it meaning into the wilderness. I had suffered an uncommon Brain Stem Stroke, caused by a Vertebral artery dissection that cut off Blood supply to The right side of my Brain causing a left side paralysis of the body and the right side of my face.
There was excitement amongst all neurologists and neuro students at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. I was semi conscious but could hear conversations and comments saying OMG this is such a "Text Book Case" which I found out later meant you only read about it in Neurology Text Books as Very few survived such a stroke. During my stay at the hospital My case was presented twice in neurologists conferences and I was asked to relate my story to a few hundred Neurologists..
The very first people to be with me at the Hospital as Mithu was on a Flight to Tokyo, were My God Parents I call Mum and Dad - Mr and Mrs Nayanars both Doctors, he was my GP and She was head of Radiology at Prince of Wales Hospital.
Dr Vimala was always my Mentor in Sydney and she kept insisting from year 2002 I should write a book and Publish it. Not to do with the subject matter but she wanted me to keep my mind engaged to avoid going into a depression.
I talked about it and my Son Commented Dad, who wants to read your boring stories and it made sense and I abandoned the idea totally and Dr Nayanar also gave up on me.
From 2002 I was heavily involved with IIT Madras Alumni Association, helped open up the association that was a closed shop until then making it Global and I was the first Joint secretary from outside India. I also created the IIT Global Groups and this did exactly what Dr Mrs Vimala Nayanar wanted. Kept my Mind fully occupied
In 2007 again I woke up with a dream to publish a collection of articles from select IIT Alumni. The Theme in my Dream was "Yesterday Today Tomorrow" with IIT alumni sharing stories of their life on campus and after.
When I had all 35 articles ready it was my Good Friend Behruz Sethna who suggested we change the Title of the Book to "Reflections by IITians"
Here is the e Book for those who are interested in reading articles on line
