In pictures: Rotary Club of Calcutta East Central felicitates Victor Banerjee and Shuvendu Sen

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The highlight of the evening involved Sen (felicitated by Rotarian Ramendu Homchaudhuri in pic) talking about his soon-to-be-released book, The Fight Against Alzheimer’s (Rupa Publications). An award-winning physician, author and speaker for more than two decades, Sen, based in the US, is a recipient of the Nautilus Award and has been honoured by the United Nations among other recognitions. “Alzheimer’s requires compassion and care. It needs love and respect, science and art to walk hand in hand,” said Sen

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In summarising the premise of his book, Sen explained how the early signs of Alzheimer’s can be as simple as forgetting common nouns or losing the sense of smell. He went on to elaborate how the first can be detected in what is a case of “undercover dementia”: “You may want to eat an omelette or porridge for breakfast, but can’t remember what they’re called. Instead, you say: ‘I want breakfast.’ A perfectly reasonable thing to say [in isolation], but it conceals signs of dementia”

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Even though Alzheimer’s eats away at one’s memory, a “deep sense of dignity” as well as “procedural memory” (long-term memory that aids actions and skills) are usually not affected by it, revealed Sen. Similarly, appreciation for music or other forms of art can also be preserved in an Alzheimer’s patient, as evident in the stories of Sen’s own patients, including one who briefly came out of coma on hearing a musical tune on Sen’s mobile phone on a memorable Christmas Eve

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“Alzheimer’s isn’t a solitary disease. Rather, it’s a family situation. In most cases, caregivers, in the absence of adequate caregivers themselves, end up getting Alzheimer’s. It almost works as an infectious disease,” noted Sen, whose comments were prefaced with a video by Rupa Publications that had the likes of Victor Banerjee, Anupam Kher, Parambrata Chattopadhyay and more talk about Sen’s book

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The evening came to a close with the organisers screening a documentary called ‘The Unseen Song’, which captures how Moran Blind School, under the stewardship of Padma Bhushan Victor Banerjee (felicitated by Rotarian Hira Lal Yadav in pic), has been educating blind students for decades in Assam

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Speaking about the school, Banerjee, whom Sen had earlier described as “my friend, philosopher and guide”, said: “Compassion is the highest form of consciousness. To see the innate joy of the students in the school is an incomparable feeling. I’m grateful for all the support we’ve received. I’d also like to thank all the Rotarians for all the good work you do” Krishnungshu Gangopadhyay