deviousways

A couple of months ago, a former national level cricketer's father went missing in Mysore's Devaraja Market. The local police sprang into action and the gentleman was found in a couple of hours. In that time, though he had wandered some 5 km from the spot he was last seen (the market). News reports quoted the police as saying the elderly gentleman suffered from “age-related forgetfulness”. Now, I don't know if the cricketer's dad has some form of dementia. If he does, I do hope he is getting treatment (medicines can slow the process of brain degeneration but not halt or reverse it). I also hope that his fasmart technology, privacy, Facebook, mily is alert always whenever they go anywhere. Because the elderly gentleman, if he has dementia, can easily go missing again. Such wandering is a behaviour associated with dementia. According to the Alzheimer's Association of the US (www.alz.org), six in 10 people with dementia will wander. More frighteningly, res...

When I call to wish my father on his birthday, I usually say: “Happy birthday, Acha” ( acha or achan means 'father' in Malayalam). And always, my father replies: “Thank you, same to you”. My father is nearly 84. He was once a lawyer.  Now, birthdays don't matter to him. Nor do anniversaries, festivals, or any oc c asion, really. Today, he is a shell of the person he once was, physically and mentally. M y father, you see, has dementia.  Dementia ('de' meaning “without” and 'mentia' meaning “mind”) is actually a misleading term. It does not mean the sufferer is insane or demented. Rather, it is the term for a group of signs and symptoms a ssociated with a progressive loss of brain function--the sufferer's judgement, memory, behaviour, language and daily living skills (washing, cleaning oneself, brushing teeth etc.,) slowly deteriorate. Causes Dementia is a curious disease, people above 65 are more at risk. But while it is age-related, it ...