A Three Headed Monster

My last post was a product of immense frustration i am feeling these days while working as a resident in a trust hospital in Delhi which caters mostly to middle to lower income groups. And i have come across some 12-15 patients, in their middle ages with diabetic nephropathy with CKD stage IV to V in just a period of 2 months of my new job. And the element of surprise is that they were diagnosed to be diabetic only recently after coming in delayed contact with Healthcare. Adding to frustration was – some of them telling me “Sir jub se is hospital mein aaye hein tabhi se yeh sab kuch hua hai … nahi to mein kabhi beemar hee nahi hua !!!“.

I mean…How would you react to such kind of statement ??

Anyways, now that the problem has raised its ugly head, what are the ways available to fix it ?
The answer i get is : “Comprehensive conservative management and initiation of Renal Replacement Therapy”.
Renal Replacement Therapy !!! If i am right that implies :either a dialysis or a transplant.

As we all know Renal Transplant is a rare commodity available only to a lucky few (read lucky as rich).
So in short, how many dialysis can a lower to middle class family afford equates to the amount of life they can buy.

I also feel that each and every step of disease management is restricted by limiting resources especially in India with most of the healthcare bills being paid out of the pocket. Whether the treatment to a ailment is available or not, sometimes seems to be irrelevant.

I am clueless about whom to blame : The Naive attitude of People towards there own health or The Economic System or The Incapability of Medicine as a science !!
Or may be its like a three headed monster trying to eat you and you are trying to figure out which head is smaller…

Medicine as a science is still primitive !!!

As a patient or as a doctor, this thing will always come to your mind when you will find yourself restrained by though-modern-but-seemingly-primitive methods of the medicine, if compared to other streams of science. After the advent of antibiotics we have somehow been able to conquer the infective diseases but now we have a waging war coming up where our opponents will be the lifestyle diseases. The special attribute of lifestyle diseases working against us is their ability to involve multiple organ systems at a time. Their effects on whole body are in the form of a continuum throughout the body and not just on isolated organs or organ systems. While our approach in fighting these diseases is very short sighted!!! We don’t actually cure them but just postpone them to let them reappear at a latter date. Without primary care our fight against diseases is irrelevant. In spite of great advances in diagnostic investigations our actions on the diagnosed diseases are mild. We deal with the human body by dividing it into separate organ systems and most of the strategy in our hands is predominantly defensive. We are in acute need of ways to find out more aggressive ways with pin pointed precision and actually uprooting the pathology then just alleviating the symptoms and waiting for the body to heal by itself.

Why Do Human Beings fight Among Each Other ?

We will have to ask a few basic questions to ourselves which if answered correctly will make us understand what is actually going on and what should be done to stop all this.

What Is Religion ?

There are about 25 main religions being practiced across the world today . Each one of these religions is again divided into various sects. At some isolated places of earth like Africa and the Amazon forest there are many more religions practiced by the local tribes .Each religion gives a different set of theories of origin of this world .Each religion gives a different set of paths to touch the Divine God. Each religion gives the people a certain set of rules to act within .

But a simple logic a sane person should understand that no matter what anybody says there can be one and only one Ultimate Theory to explain the origin of this world and there can be one and only one GOD…if actually there is one !!!

What Is Language ?

“A language is a dynamic set of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the elements used to manipulate them.”-Wikipedia .

Once I was watching a documentary on language and I would like to restate what I learnt from that documentary-“It has been proved by research that a language is a natural tendency of a human being “. That simply implies that if a experiment is conducted such that a group of children before having developed any sign of language is isolated , they are destined to find a way to communicate or in simple words will develop there own language.

So let it be Japanese,Chinese,Spanish or let it be Marathi,Tamil,Kannada,Malyalam,Hindi,English……Language is just a way of expressing your ideas and no language should be considered to be superior or to be inferior to the other…or there should not be a sense of pride or a sense of anguish to speak a particular language. If you know the language speak it out and if you don’t know the language try to learn it and then speak it out and share your ideas with the society. Why does anybody wants to fight for language !!!

Now after having witnessed the world war 1 and world war 2 and other everyday terrorist attacks I think its finally the time that we should sit and contemplate that something is potentially wrong with the human nature .We ourselves classify things and we ourselves divide things and then we actually become a part of those hypothetical divisions and start having inter-hypothetical-division fights . Well now-a-days I think the hypothetical divides of the religion are getting blunted gradually .I think I know what will be the new divides of humanity –Atheists,Agnostics,Scientlogists,Budhists, Scientifics and non-Scientifics, knowledgeable and less knowledgeable , IQ above 150 , IQ from 100-150 and IQ below 100

There are many other questions which Humanity should answer itself before carrying on with the business of being the Humanity.

Our Old Delusive Politicians

I feel that our politicians do not realize the severity of the current situation and probably their old age have made them delusive enough to understand anything that is going on.They have such a narrow vision of the real picture so that they are not able to get out of social divisions of religion and caste which actually don’t exist today.The actual divisions dividing our society today are that of poverty,disease,hunger,corruption and terrorism.When will these degenerated brains realize!!!

An Epidemic Of Mediocrity And Inaction

Mumbai Terror Attack

After having done my internship  in a government hospital for one year and after having observed the attitude of government agencies and above all our political leaders , it is my observation that what we are experiencing today is not just a terror attack suggesting the failure of our Intelligence agencies.But similar situations of failure are very much present in our government hospitals where in spite of full dedication of doctors needed resources are not made available.It seems that saving a patient is just a personal fight for a doctor and the government and hospital administration has nothing to do with that.

Taking a note that most of the patients visiting the government hospitals are below poverty line,those who are not even capable of buying a disposable syringe. Have you ever heard that a single disposable syringe being used 4-6 times across 2-3 days to give iv drug therapy.

These things do happen in government hospitals where supply of syringes,gloves and other necessary stuff is far short of what is needed.We are told that government is short of supply which is well expected when the government expenditure on healthcare is less than 2 % of GDP.

The hospital management being headed by short sighted-about to retire doctors-with political influence  who are not motivated to work for positive change ,they are just too short sighted to foresee the requirements of their institution.

The same condition is with our politicians where their old age brings with itself the properties of Mediocrity And Inaction.

I feel that our Leaders,Politicians,Officials in government ,who are actually the people living among us may be do not know what is the taste of excellence.Or maybe they are not intellectually armed enough to get the acutual feel of the duty which has been given to them.Or maybe it is the side effect of our political system which actually has property of inaction inherent to it.

A Letter to The Director,Doordarshan

Sir,
I would like to bring  your kind attention to the fact that the Doordarshan channel in my view is our strongest tool by means of which we can bring a positive change in our society.We cannot wait for creeping plan of “Education for All” , to set in and show its effect in matter of decades.Being citizens of this country its your and my responsibility to show the people what they have not seen.While surfing through the web i came across some BBC HORIZONS Documentaries and after having seen most of them i am convinced that they have totally changed my way of thinking and my perceptions towards the world.

A big problem with education today is that students today are not motivated enough to continue their education.Their dreams actually have been infected by the quality of mediocrity of our parent generation.Nobody…not even me and you found being educated interesting because of the monotonous nature of our way of imparting education.So inspite of our best efforts of educating people many drop outs are seen from the school when a sense of economic crisis creeps into ones family.Their are no dreams with the students to help them cruise over the crisis.You might be well aware that today media has an important role to play in determining our secondry needs.Our dreams,our needs and all the things we long for are in a way influenced a lot by the media and advertisements we see everyday.So at your position you have all the power to change India,the way it is today.

Following are some of the you tube links from some of BBC HORIZONS documentaries :-

BBC-Horizon-The Six Billion Dollar Experiment

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=WvEK5uZXpZU

BBC Horizon – Human v2.0

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ArYzyE63MH8

BBC Horizon 2006 – The World’s First Face Transplant

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4LUgH0WTg

BBC Horizon – Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=b4CwrsBzWn0

BBC Horizon – The Presidents Guide to Science

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=nMa74J2RlEI

BBC Horizon – My Pet Dinosaur

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=fYIRdRaPSrk

and many more…. check out this link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/

Sir if these documentaries translated in Hindi and shown will give our students a supplementary vision,a ladder to climb upon the complexities of science.Please do not be of view that Indian people in villages will not be able to understand these documentaries because they are illiterate.In addition to this please check out the links below to understand how people learn…

How People Learn:

Brain, Mind, Experience, and School

Authors:
John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown, and Rodney R. Cocking, Editors; Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, National Research Council

Kindly Read It : http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=6160#toc

Hoping for a positive change.
Thanking You.
Indian Citizen

A letter to Mr Advani in response to his speech at HT Leadership Summit(contd)

My question is what is the need of mixing politics with religion.Politics is all about governance…to bring about a positive change.It is a simple logic that every sane person should understand that their can be one and only one creator of whole human race and the cosmos.The Hindutva your party talks about day and night is a product of the vedic age, around 1700 to 500BC and please don’t deny this fact by saying that it is just a theory….it is well supported by scientific evidences. And if you deny this fact..you will have to deny all other scientific theories…the Newton Laws…The theory of General Relativity…in fact you will have to deny everything that science says.When you talk of development of a country…or when you use computers and other gadgets…or when you talk about nuclear energy…it indicates that no matter what you make yourself think ,scientific theories are true..denying of which indicates your naivety .

A letter to Mr Advani in response to his speech at the HT leadership summit

To Mr Advani

Sir,

To rebuild India you need to understand the building block of this country…an Indian citizen..a person who in his pursuit to get a days meal for himself and his family ,does whatever it takes.He does not have the power of education to back him ..he has lost his power of creativity because of hunger and everyday frustrations..he does not know how is remaining world like.The only picture of world what he sees is that of misery ,a world where everyday is a battle.He doesn’t understand what Hindutva means.His interpretation of hindutva is totally different from your philosophy of hindutva.Being educated i understand what you mean to say,but he interprets it as – “A Muslim is my enemy” …”A Christian is my enemy”…”Only The Gods will come and help me and take me out of this misery…i ve lost all hope from politicians..i am ready to fight for my hindu God whenever there is a need..because i believe in my hindu God”……….and sir u see the results the riots..and all the chaos.Muslims think that they are against them so they as a defensive measure on their religion,are in a delusion that a religious war is going on…this is what Hindutva means for a Indian citizen.

a Suggestion
From past few months i have been observing people around me with respect to their health status and general intellectual abilities(i hail from Madhya Pradesh). I have come to a conclusion that people don’t actually know what is good health or i can say they don’t know how to take care of their health.In fact people don’t understand themselves and what they are capable of. In my view the main cause of this is lack of quality education.The most important thing that government can do in its pursuit to rebuild India is that it should make arrangements for good quality education free of cost.Most importantly ,education in Hindi medium is equal to unemployment…that your party has always favoured in Madhya Pradesh. A student of a Hindi medium school is not able to fulfill the requirements of increasingly globalizing Indian economy.So as the planners of our society i look upon the politicians to make necessary amendments in the system of education more frequently to cater the needs of our rapidly developing society.Maintaining a global standard of education is of utmost importance in the current picture.

their are many other things but this is all i can think of right now…

To understand how people think and how i think kindly read something about
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs on wikipedia….and please try to understand the world as it is today(babri masjid…partition.and other things…past is past it is gone)

the link is below->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Wake Up Call !!!

Hunger and Chaos everywhere,
When will my nation progress
And all problems disappear.
I am a common man,
Is there anything i can do
To bring my country on a Fast Lane.

Is it only me
Who thinks on these lines?
If are there others
Why this nation has no shines?

Are there others?
Who want and who can
Turn the skies down
And bring HER the heaven’s gown!

If you can hear my cries
And read my thoughts.
We have a duty to fulfill
And get HER out of the droughts.

My Very Loving Indian Parents

Before starting to write my first post on this blog i was searching for a good proverb or great saying to help me proceed with my post and i came across a chinese proverb.

Chinese Proverb said: “To understand your parents’ love you must raise children yourself.”

After having attained a age when you know what you think and you speak what you think and you desire to understand why you think what you think,in short when you achieve the heights of your consciousness…you start searching for answers to everything around you.

The first thing i want to ask myself  is that- why my parents love me so much and is it only my parents that love their child so much or all the parents around the world love their children as much as my parents do .

I am a resident of a small town near not so globalized city called Bhopal and i belong to a typical Indian middle class family which somehow managed to get this tag maybe two decades ago when i was in starting years of my life.Both my father and mother are in government service and they have been there since 2o to 25 years working continuously each and everyday trying to make ends meet but not with great ease, after spending for the best available education for me and my younger sister (also will like to mention about this computer where i am writing this post which they got me 2 years back and supporting my expensive interest into music).

As in any other Indian middle class family residing in any tier 2 or tier 3 city in India ,which thinks that if their son or daughter becomes a doctor or a engineer the whole progeny will attain a divine glory .So in order to get my family the so called glorification i became a doctor .I have finished my MBBS and i am taking some time off living with my parents from past 6 months after a long gape of 5 and a half years in Chennai pursuing my medicine degree.These 6 months have been very important to understand this world better and to decide my further course in life.

After having observed my family and the social structure around me with a keen eye of a doctor, gifted to me by my so called noble profession ,i have come to a conclusion that people around me seem to be so much innocent and or may be just so much ignorant about the rest of the world with the only source of information influencing their lives being television which frames an altogether delusive picture of this world.

Now i am in a part of the world which is in a transitional phase -from the driving force of life being just intuition to the driving force evolving into a better force called rationalism -from an Indian way of living to an increasingly global way of living….and in midst of all this i feel as if i am a pillar post on the road which takes a steep turn and i am actually observing it do that everyday.

My main concerns in this situation is  that my parents love me so much so that it makes me anxious sometimes when i think that will i ever be able to return all that love they give me when this wave of increasing economic competition and a modern way of living shears into my life.