A doctor with 'rosy' heart

English garden designer Gertrude Jekyll wrote, "The love of gardening is a seed once sown never dies . . ." And Dr.F.A.Kazi, Chief Medical Officer of KUD, is one in our neighborhood passionately doing gardening with the feeling that seed once sown never dies. His love for gardening has changed the face of health centre compound in the campus as rose, jasmine, and many other varieties of flowers giving a beautiful aura to the compound.

There are 180 rose plants in the garden of nine varieties. Out of nine six are budded (Hybrid) roses of different colours like Bright Red, Crimson Red, White, Yellow, Green and double colour (half petal is pink and half petal is white). There are 18 Jasmine, 500 Gladiolus (white, yellow, pink), Barsera [Russian scent plant (the same plant which is grown in Tata geni estate behind Ashoka Hotel and a factory producing scent out of it) and a creeper, which gives bird shape flowers decorate his garden. 40 May flowers plants, which gives balloon shaped flower, which stays for 2months once a year in the month of March crimson red colour are also there. Entire margin is lined with Cena red flower plants which gives parrot shaped red flowers 10 in number once in a year. Red cushioned shaped flower plants are there around 300 all along the edge. The garden is full of a variety of tendrils, which give small star shaped red flower throughout the year and a variety of indoor coloured plants of different colour which cannot survive under direct sunlight.

“This is just a beginning. I did all these things no employees scheduled for garden and without any external assistance”, tells Dr.Kazi. I started this effort in last June and nothing but love for plants inspired me for this,” he continues. He spends daily three hours, 6 to 9 in every morning for the nursing of his plants. If varsity provides me a gardener and a compound wall, I can produce a spring to the campus. I have bigger plans of planting fruit plants, constructing a fish pond and fountain.” Dr. Kazi is a model to several campus residents and officials.

Which is your Blood Group?

Which is your blood group? This is the first question I put forward to any young male I meet. People laugh at me but I am least bothered. I collect their name, mobile number and keep it as a data bank. The response varies person to person.

Couple of incidents made me to initiate the venture of maintaining the blood group database. The first incident was the sad moment when I lost my colleague of Maruti Dealer in Bangalore. Unfortunately, he was not wearing helmet when he met with an accident. We rushed him to hospital. First question put forth by doctor was about his blood group. We checked his company id card, but that particular space was left blank. We were helpless in the matter and due to the delay in recognizing the blood group and providing blood, we lost our friend forever.

Another incident, which I can never forget, is the incident that happened in Bagalkot. My sister who was admitted in one of the private hospitals at Bagalkot had to undergo a caesarian operation and the doctor asked us to make arrangements for collecting three bottles of ‘A’ negative blood. It was already 11pm and there was hardly any possibility of collecting blood. It was a time people either switches off their mobile phones or keeps it in silent mode. The hospital Blood bank could not help us. Moreover, negative blood was rare. We tried all the possible efforts but all went in vain. We lost her and the infant in her womb. These events made me to do something in this area. I donate blood frequently and inspire others to do the same. The blood you donate will save somebody who is in dire need of it. Therefore, make sure that you check your blood group as early as possible.

Many of us do not know the advantages of donating blood. Blood donation prevents the accumulation of toxic quantities. It may reduce the risk of heart disease for men. In addition, donating one pint of blood helps the donor to burn approximately 650 calories.

In Italy, blood donors get a holiday with salary on the day of blood donation. Blood donation will save some other life while making your body more fit. The Kansas University Medical Center found that men who participate in blood donation experience a 30 percent fewer incidents of heart disease and stroke compared to those people who did not. In 1998 American Journal of Epidemiology published that blood donation can reduce the overall iron levels in blood, which may protect against heart attack. However, this applies to people who had high iron in their blood to begin with. Blood donation forces your body to replace the lost blood with fresh NEW cells. Men do not have menstrual period, therefore they store iron in their bodies, and often it is more than they need. A healthy body replaces blood within 48 hours and creates NEW red blood cells within a week.