I reached college today and ran straight into a discussion between my batch-mates about, well, ‘The system’. Since we’ve reached a yet another milestone in our professional lives, it is indeed the hot topic of discussion nowadays. It is the next thing we’ll be stepping into after all, and staying in it perhaps for the rest of our lives.
So people were saying that there are things that are bad and we’ll have to adapt to them. People said that things are bad but not everyone has to go with ‘The system’, although its damn difficult. People said that there are ways in between too.
The options are plenty I think. Even at this stage, I am strictly referring to my profession; people can turn into money-making machines if they want to. There is certainly no need to cry and regret and waste your precious emotions on the choice of your profession at this stage. It is a very crucial turning point indeed but we need to know where we want to spend the rest of our lives. May be there won’t be much turning back, or sideways after this. So we need to know.
Incidentally, it was this morning itself when I stumbled upon an interesting thought. Decision is not making a choice but knowing your choice! May remind you of Matrix, but I won’t give the details of my thought’s origin. It will bore you more.
The thing is, there is no real reason to do what you think is wrong or rather, what you don’t want to do. Just remember that there are consequences.
Talking more relevantly, about the present India and its immediate future, our country is changing. The pace has dramatically increased in the past one decade or so due to several factors but in my opinion largely due to the information revolution. India is indeed shining more than ever since its independence. And it will continue to do so at a rapid pace in near future.
Secondly, its difficult to utilize you full potential as a doctor if you don’t have a vision. Medical profession is not about securing your basic necessities (a very relative term) or doing what you know to do when someone comes to you with illness. We learned in PSM about the significance of health. And its not just theory. Morbidity, productivity and growth of various sectors of a population are closely related. It makes no sense giving analgesics/ anti-inflammatory to patients of Chikungunya fever and not check the mosquito population.
I am not saying that you have to be a revolutionist. It doesn’t take a revolution to change the world. One way or the other India will change and as I said, it is. Its your choice to be a part of this change or not. It sounds a little poetic but it is as solid as a fact. For example, someone started a trend of piercing the stilette after IV cannulation in the mattress. (Seriously, who is that great soul???) Now its your choice to join this trend or not. Similarly, whether to use proper sterile technique for urethral catheterization or get away with an alternative quicker method is entirely up to you. But you are contributing to a fashion by your way of working.
So its up to you to be a part of the change that your country will undergo in the coming years. The picture does appear rosy to me. I consider myself really lucky to be a part of this generation. I believe that more than anything else, education will be a big factor in our development as a nation. So its up to you to be a part of it by educating a child or staying out of it. Its going to happen anyways. Its your choice to educate a village about condoms and STI’s or not. Its your choice to tell people the flaws in our health system and make suggestions to the government and follow it up to its implementation. Is it too difficult? Or too boring? Or you really don’t care? Whatever, its your choice. There is nothing to cry about.
And if you claim that ‘the system’ can’t be changed then I thoroughly disagree. I have seen Juhu beach in its dirtiest days and look at it now. There are no more uncovered drains in my area. Slum rehab is being taken more seriously every day. People are at least considering introducing sex-education formally! The most remote areas in our country are now connected to the world although they have no electricity or telephone cables, thanks to the satellites. I am certain, that polio will be eradicated.
There is no doubt that still a lot remains to be done and we still are a third world country. But this is the primary reason that I want to remain in India. I want to be a part of the transformation of my country. It is my choice. So just make yours.

I recently read Michael Crichton’s ‘State of Fear’. It opened my eyes.
The book is about ‘environmentalists-terrorists’ and a group of people who try to stop them. It came as a shock to me that even environmentalists could be extremists.
Circhton has used ample references to verify his facts that are a part of the story. Some of which are-
1) The earth’s temperature is indeed rising, the phenomenon we call as global-warming, but it has been happening since several hundred years after the mini Ice-age.
2) Nobody knows how much of human activity is responsible for the rise in earth’s temperature or for that matter, even the rise in the levels of carbon-di-oxide.
3) It has been ‘guessed’ that at the current rate, the phenomenon of ‘global-warming’ for which millions of dollars are being spent, will cause about 0.8 degree Celsius of rise in the earth’s temperature in a century!
4) The Kyoto treaty claims to bring down this rise by about 0.3 degree Celsius.
5) Nobody has an accurate data of temperature of the past century in the world. In fact, the warming is not even uniformly ‘global’ according to the data. The rates differ, in some parts the temperature has either remained the same or there has been a documented decline!
6) No rise in sea-level anywhere in the world attributed to global warming has been recorded.
7) Similarly, there is no evidence of global warming causing melting of glaciers or ice-caps anywhere around the world.
8) Our climate is too dynamic for us to exert any effect on it, positive or negative. Storms, earth-quakes, floods, draught, tsunamis, are not under our control.
9) We have a very little understanding of our environment. We really don’t know how to ‘manage’ wilderness.
10) All this is the result of lack of experts/scientists in environmental organizations which are run by litigators and donators who have no absolutely relation with science.
I signed the online petition forwarded to me by WWF favoring the Kyoto treaty few years ago. I thought ‘global warming’ would one day eventually submerge all the coastal cities. I thought somehow we were responsible for the natural calamities I’ve seen in my lifetime. I never knew how, but I do remember my science books in school claiming so and many NGOs and celebrity volunteers shouting the same as loud as they could into my ears through the media! Do they even know?
My beliefs are shaken. I’d take all news reports from now on with a pinch of salt. Especially the studies, which are more often than not sponsored and hence have an agenda. Blinded scientific studies are actually hard to find. Their results are already in the researchers’ expectations.
I’ve also decided to ‘learn’ about our environment rather than just assume that humans are responsible for all the disasters. In fact, that is the only way we can hope to reduce the damage we might be doing. Step one is to know the damage and its cause. Interestingly, ‘State of Fear’ also mentions that some global warming might even be advantageous! It may increase our crop production considerably.
Crichton has written this book to bring to our notice the farce of ignorant environmental organizations/individuals. The story is a by-product. He’s kept the language obviously simple. The concept of a state of fear is also very interesting but I’d like you to read the book to understand it. It tells you how the world thinks. Everyone should read it.

Of fragrances and life...

I once said, 'The best experiences are had with your eyes closed.' When you cut off your visual inputs; which are over 90% of the total sensory input, then you suddenly enter a different world, where things 'feel' different.
That world of mine is one fragrant world I know of! I mean, the dominant sense when I shut my eyes is that of smell.
Its weird i know, but my most beautiful memories have a strong component of fragrance. More often than not I am reminded of certain events, places or 'people' not by a sound or a visual, but by some smell. It could be anything. A passer-by's perfume, some flower, the smell of wood, anything...
I can never escape the haunting warmth of the small hut sort of hanuman temple at the banks of The Ganges when I'm near an agarbatti of a particular scent. It was dark inside, on a summer noon in Kanpur. Lit only by a diya, the shadow of the deity flickered on the mud walls around. I remember the moment... The smell.
Then the smell of roses. It reminds me of a party, that happened many years ago. But it still does, always.
There is so much fragrance around us, its surprising that its seldom appreciated. The smell of turmeric, that of recently splintered coconut... There is a scent of something I don't know thats there in a lady's vanity box. It reminds me of the packed rooms where women get dressed before a wedding.
I remember gulab-jamun more by its scent than the flavour! Nothing satiates me more than the aroma of hot chocolate or rich coffee. And nothing is more unappatising than the smell of desi-ghee!
Sometimes even my dreams are based on a scent. Like the smell of burning wood or charcoal... Its so deep seated.
And then there is nature with all kinds of fragrances that stir some sub-concsious instinct every time. The smell of mist, the just-spicy scent of dust, that of trees drenched in rain, of grass- both dry and wet, of the ocean...and so many lovely things...
Although I love to capture still moments, I wish I could add a part of fragrance associated with each of them, that belongs to them. So that I could live them with my eyes closed...