Monthly Archives: October 2024

It’s always a pleasure to share my love of neurology with the public. Last night I was given the opportunity to speak about brain health to members of staff at Huawei. Instead of the usual academic-style presentation, I modified my lecture slightly to make it feel more like a ‘TED talk’.

This is something I learned from my PhD supervisor: tell a coherent story. People respond best to stories compared to cold, hard data, no matter how convincing the facts are. Of course, in a scientific conference setting, it might be unavoidable, after all people are there FOR the data. But even so, the very best speakers don’t simply give you a bucketload of numbers to digest. Instead, they weave it into a compelling narrative to support the argument that they are making.

Hopefully this will be the first of many more talks for corporate clients inshaAllah. When it comes to brain health, cognition, memory etc. I realise that people are naturally curious about it and tend to ask plenty of questions afterwards.

Thank you to Care Clinics and Eisai for organising the event.

This poem by Khalil Gibran flowed into my river of social media feeds the other day and I want to save it here for posterity.

If you’ve been following this blog, you will know that I recently made a major career decision to leave the (relative) security of a university job for private practice. So far, things are going well alhamdulillah but I’d be lying if I said I’m not apprehensive about what the future may bring.

It’s good, therefore, to put things into perspective when dealing with situations like these. So, here it is, the poem ‘Fear’ by Khalil Gibran:

It is said that before entering the sea 
A river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.
The river cannot go back.

Nobody can go back. 
To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk 
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

While we’re on the topic of defending the indefensible, I’d like to share this YouTube clip of Mehdi Hasan’s powerful opening statement during his debate with Eylon Levy recently:

Again, I feel like the degree of denial required to continue believing that Israel is the good guy in this conflict is astounding.

Look, I get that many politicians continue to support Israel because of money. Who’d want to jeopardise their chances or being elected by, horror of all horrors, standing up for something as quaint as justice?

But deep down in the smallest recesses of their hearts, surely even they must know that Israel’s actions are cruel, inhumane, and excessive beyond measure.

Speaking of atrocities: what happened to Jewish people during the Holocaust was an unimaginable tragedy, but that makes the current situation even more disappointing because those who have suffered so much are now inflicting the same kind of punishment on others. Life is full of irony, and sometimes it even comes from comedy. When thinking of how much self-delusion people indulge in in order to defend Israel’s actions, I can’t help but recall this YouTube clip of Mitchell and Webb portraying two Nazis who eventually realise that they’re the baddies!

May Allah SWT bless the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, and every other land that is currently suffering under Israeli oppression.