The TV in our palm

This is the age of mobile. And there's hardly anyone in the world who doesn't love entertainment. Marry the two, and what do you get - mobile entertainment!

That is precisely what the folks over there at Tata Sky have launched recently. The other day, I was going through my news feed when something caught my eye: Tata Sky+ Transfer. I've been a Tata Sky+ customer for about two years and the recording facility is an indispensable part of my life. There's no longer a question of missing any of my favorite TV shows - it's always recorded, right there! It also records all episodes of a TV series automatically when it's set to. But one thing I've sorely missed is the convenience of watching them whenever and wherever I want to.

Not anymore.

Here comes Tata Sky+ Transfer, giving us the freedom to do exactly what the name says - transfer the recorded shows into any device and watch them wherever we want! I'm a college student and often my schedule doesn't permit me to stay at home and watch television. And there's only one TV in the house, and mom wants to watch her Hindi serials, sis can't get enough of Doraemon, grandpa is a devotee of Sanskaar and I can't miss my Game of Thrones episodes and IPL cricket matches. Everyone in the family has different tastes, and as a result there's always a constant war over the TV remote. In this situation, the ability to transfer recorded shows and watch them on whatever device we want to is a blessing indeed. And it's not just me, a lot of my friends too have similar situations at home, and this is definitely something they're going to love. During the breaks at college, now we can happily catch up with the highlights of last night's match, or the latest Gotham episode! Coupled with all this, a 500 GB hard disk with HD recording in the Tata Sky+ Transfer box is going to give ample storage space for everyone. And the best part is, the transferred shows can be watched on both Android and iOS devices, so there's really no hassle for anyone.

When the demand arises, technology follows. And in these days, it's just a matter of time. Three cheers to Tata Sky for once again being way ahead of all the others in innovation!

 
To watch a preview of what this latest buzz is all about, here's this video:

Time to be a Transferkar now! For more details, click here: http://www.tatasky.com/transfer/

This post was written for the IndiBlogger contest #TataSkyTransfer. 

The healing touch

Once upon a time, people lived in a world in which getting rid of a disease was considered a grave challenge, a very long process that was incredibly painful to the patient. No, I'm not talking about the ancient days when anaesthesia did not exist and surgeries used to be conducted with patients screaming aloud throughout. Even thirty years ago, people still shuddered at the thought of going to a doctor.

Treating a patient is still considered a challenge, as no two humans are alike. However, thankfully, the world has changed a lot for the better. Technology has revolutionized people's lives, and in no other field has it been more profound than in healthcare.

Take an example. Yuvraj Singh was diagnosed with lung cancer a few days after the 2011 World Cup. He was promptly given state-of-the-art treatment that lasted for a few months. And the result? He was back, hitting sixes like he always used to! Could this have been possible even a decade ago? I think not.

Yuvraj Singh's case was a famous example, where the power of modern technology in the medical field was visible to the whole world. Yet, there are hundreds of instances everyday around the globe, where modern healthcare is touching lives in ways it has never done before.

Let's see how this works. A person goes to a doctor complaining of recurrent headache. Now, what can the cause possibly be? It can be migraine, a persistent cold, or simply a result of staring for long hours at a computer screen every night. Or it can be a growing brain tumor. Now suppose our patient is one of those unfortunate rare cases with the tumor. If he were living thirty years ago, the doctor would've probably started with some basic pain-relief medicines... and by then, the tumor would've grown much bigger. Now, with X-ray systems available virtually everywhere (Wikipedia tells me that an estimated 5 billion X-ray tests were done worldwide in 2010) the doctor can identify the cause straightaway, and plan the next course of action.

What would be the next course of action?

Until recently, a brain tumor was considered a highway to death. Patients with such cases were asked to "wind up their affairs" - in other words, get ready to die. Not anymore. We now have advanced forms of radiosurgery that can make recovering from certain forms of tumors and cancers not just possible, but also relatively painless.

Not just radiosurgery, but it's amazing to see how technology has transformed the way of doing things even in a standard operation theatre. Robotic surgeries allow doctors to have much higher precision than what was possible earlier; and in addition, the patients can go home quicker as well. The list of achievements in modern healthcare is endless - right from medicines that now act upon their target in a much more precise and quick way; they surely have come a long way from when penicillin was first discovered, to transplants that now permit even multiple organs to be transferred at a time from one person to another. And it'll be interesting to watch what the future has in store for us. As the researchers toil in the labs everyday, stem cell therapy may soon occupy centrestage in being the answer to a wide variety of problems.
 

This sudden explosion of technology in medicine - not just in the developed countries, but also developing ones like ours - has led to a whole new phenomenon: medical tourism. An estimated 150,000 people travel to India every year to seek a remedy for their illnesses which may or may not be available in their own country - usually if it's available there, it's exorbitantly priced.

The contemporary lifestyle, though, has brought its fair share of problems with itself. Lack of physical activity has led to obesity becoming not something to be laughed at -  but a real, life-threatening disorder. Thankfully, modern science has an answer to that too. Bariatric surgery - though commonly reckoned as a last resort - has given a new lease of life to a large number of patients across the world. And obesity is not the only negative consequence of the modern lifestyle and environment on health - it has also resulted in several other problems such as respiratory disorders (thanks to the enormous pollution), eye problems and an accelerated rate of degenerative diseases. Science is trying to find an answer to that too.

Everyday, even as you read this, doctors, scientists and other allied professionals are leaving no stone unturned in their quest for a healthy, disease-free world. In fact, it's not limited to the medical field - contributions from nearly every branch of science are involved in the technological advancements that we've seen. And being a medical student myself, it is my responsibility too not just to serve people with the facilities that are available right now; but also to seek newer, more efficient and effective ways of curing people. Modern hi-tech innovations have not just given a ray of hope to millions of sufferers; they have also made the doctor's job a lot easier.

And it's important that we don't allow ourselves to take a break in this hunt for new innovations; but strive continuously to move forward. There is hope.