We all are Anna Hazare!

India is a country of festivals, love, peace, enthusiasm and... corruption. However harsh the last word sounds, we as Indians have accepted the reality. But what have we done to counter it? Today one man has rose to the occasion and doing it for all of us. 72 year old social activist Anna Hazare's fast unto death has entered the third day in demand of a stringent anti-corruption bill as a part of the 'India Against Corruption' movement. And its our moral duty to step ahead and support him and tighten the noose around the government to get the common man heard. 

(Courtesy: Internet)

The 'Modern Mahatma' is showing tremendous courage and determination to push through the Lokpal Bill, which will see an independent non-political body being empowered to punish all those guilty of corruption, not even sparing the Prime minister of this country. After 105 years since the real Mahatma introduced Satyagraha in the non-violent fight against the Britishers, here is one man who is using the same principle to fight against even more dangerous culprits than the firangis, our own corrupt politicians. I haven't seen the country explode with such marvelous support across all the age groups and across all the strata of the society in support of this great Gandhian. Right from the media, the celebrities, the sports people to the common office goer, the school teacher, the farmer, college students, all are showing solidarity in unison to this amazing movement of 'India against Corruption'. It only waits to be seen whether Jantar Mantar will turn out to be the Tahrir Square of India if the government does not heed to Anna's demands.

1) Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IndiACor 

2) Twitter : http://twitter.com/janlokpal

My only appeal to all those who are reading this is to come out and support this movement in your own way. Spread the word. If Anna Hazare can... we all can! Even if we show just 10% of support that we showed towards the Indian cricket team during the Cricket World Cup, we can still win this one. It is so ridiculous how Sonia and Rahul Gandhi sat in the general stands while watching the cricket matches just to show their connect with the common man and when it came to participating the same common man in drafting the revolutionary Lokpal bill, they have ignorantly shut the door on him. People there were as many as 8 instances when the government had fooled us on passing the bill by dissolving the house when it came to clearing the bill. Stand up and say "Not This Time!". Enough is Enough!

Remember...

There is no one Anna Hazare... I am Anna Hazare too, You are Anna Hazare, We all are Anna Hazare!

How long will we let these corrupt politicians drain our nation's resources and demoralize us? It is really pitiful to hear the same politicians who hail from a party based on Gandhian principles calling Anna's satyagraha as 'childish' and 'blackmail'. I have immense respect for our Prime minister but it is very sad to see him heading a cabinet full of corrupt ministers. 

Friends and colleagues, we were not lucky enough to experience the euphoria of the great freedom struggle that our great leaders fought 60 years back. But now is the time. Its now or never! The path adopted by Anna may be a very old one, but we all need to believe in him and ourselves. We need to believe in a better tomorrow. In Anna we can see a leader, a selfless one, with no political greed. In him we can see a savior who can take us to the end of this fight against corruption. We need to stand up for ourselves and for our next generation. We cannot doubt each other any more. We have to rise and stand firm. THIS IS THE MOMENT!

Jai hind!

Should Doctors go on strike?

My younger brother called up today evening to let me know that he was participating in a debate in his medical school. The topic was "Should doctors be allowed to go on strike?" I asked him whether he was talking from the pro or the against side? Being in the first year of medical school, not yet exposed to the clinical environment and the set-up, it was understandable when he said that he was going to talk from the 'no-strike' point of view. So that tempted me to open my lappie and post about the topic here.

(Courtesy: Internet)

Every month or so, people in India are used to reading the 'Breaking News' that says - "Doctors in so-and-so state have called for an indefinite strike." I believe, 'strike' is a legitimate form to protest in a democracy like India. But with the principle behind medicine rests in alleviation of suffering, the issue about doctors using that form of protest is slightly questionable. But I feel even before asking the question as to 'Should Doctors go on strike', the first question should be, 'What are the reasons behind these strikes?' And hence this question needs to be answered so that the media and indirectly the general public gets to know the real facts for the doctors to step against their Hippocratic Oath.

What leads to strike?

In India, the medical system is not an autonomous organisation. The government controls a major part of it. The medical community is too small as compared to the vast patient load that it has to face in the public as well as the private sector. In India a student has to undergo a total of five and a half years of continuous academic training that also includes the compulsory one year rotatory internship. Some states even have a bond to complete one more year of exclusive rural hospital training before assigning the graduation hat to the candidate. Once MBBS is over, the chap has to go through yet another rigorous phase of life for his/her post-graduation studies and then when he/she gets that seat after many attempts (which is usually the scenario), the real struggle starts.

The resident doctors are the core of any public hospital. They are the ones who are present 24/7 in the hospital campus. A HSC passed science student has many aspirations and a noble thought of selfless service to the community, when he clears the CET and steps into a medical school. Yes later as he matures, he does think about earning money, which I feel is completely justified. But unfortunately, the conditions in which the resident doctors work in, make them feel hopeless about their future and the spark of the noble cause gradually dwindles along the way. Despite being the crème of the society, when they feel that their grievances for even their basic needs are not heard, the only step that remains is to resort to strike so that their apathy is somehow brought to notice.

Media and the Doctors:

Unlike what is portrayed in the electronic media (which has become a real farce in today's society), Doctors do think a lot before going on strike. They are completely aware of the repercussions that may follow in form of canceling of their registration, delay in their completion of studies and needless to mention, their image in the society. Nevertheless, the trust between the doctor and patient is not as strong as it was a few decades ago. All that the lay man today cribs about the doctor is that they are money-minting machines! But no one gives a thought to the tough and an impatient journey which the doctors go through in their early life to be called one later. It is certainly not like Dr. Armaan and Dr. Riddhima who are shown to attend patients in between their romantic and fun filled lifestyle rather than what it should be, the other way round.

Today doctors are beaten up like dogs by hooligans, not to mention, right in front of the security. We doctors certainly don't expect people to worship us like God. All we want from them is to understand that the person behind that white coat is a human being, no different than them. I am not amongst those who completely blame the relatives for such outbursts. Somewhere the communication gap between the doctor and the patient is increasingly widening leading to such shameful incidents. Both the sides should equally give efforts to understand each others point.

These strikes have become a daily affair since last few years. During my undergraduate days, I had been a part of three major strikes over a period of 3 years, everytime the cause was a different one but the pattern used to be the same. After all the means of protest proved fruitless, a strike used to become inevitable, media would spice up the stories at their own will, after 7-10 days or so, the government would wake up and do bla-bla in front of the camera without giving any written assurances and finally the strike used to get called off just to be repeated after few months as the demands used to get thrown away of the window with some or the other excuses.

Why doctors strikes are often failures?

(Courtesy: The Hindu)

The problem for all these 'strikes' remaining unsuccessful lies in the fact that the resident doctors come and go every 3 years unlike the politicians which are glued to their seats for eternity. And this is also one of the many reasons that the media openly seems biased towards the government during such confrontations. Today's media is more like that small kid desperate for attention of his friends for all the silly and stupid reasons that he has. They will loop a clip of a patient being turned away from a hospital n number of times but will not bother to step into the pathetic hostel room of a resident doctor just a few blocks away.

Another big reason for resident doctors pushed away in the corner is the lack of unity and support by their own seniors, the lecturers and the professors. Instead of increasing the medical seats for both post-graduates and the professors, the government is still hell bent on increasing the age of retirement, thereby increasing the stagnating gap between the PGs and the teachers. This is serving absolutely no purpose for those lecturers who are waiting for more than 10 years to get promoted to a professors job.

The most important reason for strike now-a-days was the decrease in the number of post-graduates seats in the government hospitals as compared to the surprisingly increase in the same in the private medical colleges, especially in Maharashtra, where almost all of them have some or the other politician heading the university they are affliated to. Talk of the pathetic political will to implement a central common entrance on merit for all the medical seats which also would include the private ones.

So all these frustrating scenarios make a doctor shed his white coat and resort to a democratic way to show his protest to the tyrannical political way of working that has infested the medical education system in India. If doctors wouldnt have gone on strike, this minutely noticeable population would have deteriorated even further. This strikes don't happen only for increase in wages as the media always focuses on. There are lot many issues that the Resident doctors associations come up with, selflessly putting the welfare of the society ahead of everything. But still there is so much indifference and insensitivity that people show towards doctors. The media shows the doctors as evil since no one would like to see a channel that supports the doctors. The media industry just cashes in on the ongoing mood, which is usually a common man's hatred and disgust towards a doctor leaving his OPD and coming on to the roads and polishing shoes in front of cameras to show their pathetic state of living.

Despite this the question still remains debatable. As long as the root of this problem is not addressed with unbiased approach by the authorities, the media and the government, these strikes will continue, irrespective of the fact that a doctor never willingly thinks about hurting his patients by holding up his services temporarily...


(The recent strike going on by the Interns in Maharashtra can be followed here... 
ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING by fellow blogger Karan Choudhary)

Marathi Manoos: The real Psyche

It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I was sitting with my books, studying for my exams due in January. It said, "Budd Chiari syndrome is a condition characterised by thrombotic occlusion of the hepatic veins." Suddenly I got startled with my Mom's scream (yes! it literally was!)... "Kirti, lavkar ithe ye, he bagh kaay jhaalay!" (Kirti come here quickly, look what has happened!" Whoa! I ran towards my living room, my Mom, Dad and Bro were glued to the T.V. as the dynamic news anchor kept screaming on top of his voice, "Abu Azmi slapped by MNS goons for taking Oath in Hindi.' And then the typical footage tactics followed repeating the 'slapping' sequence in different 'angles'. I saw the whole sequence, it was a very disgusting one! True, as the headlines said, "Black Day in history of Maharashtra". After a long time i happened to break my eye-contact with the anchor and saw my Mom and Dad. They were as much as shocked as me... No one said anything for a moment. But what I could sense was the sign of distress, discontent and sadness on their face… the reason? .....Marathi manoos was getting portrayed the wrong way… by whom?… by the media, Azmi and… the MNS!

I switched the channel. Told my parents don’t watch that thing! Very rarely they don’t argue with me when I say so, that was one moment… For the first time I told them, on my own, to watch the stupid melodramatic soaps instead… at least they were not as meaningless as the drama that unfolded in the assembly! I went in my room, slammed the door behind me, sat on my desk, opened the book, ‘Kawasaki’s disease and its management’ were ready to be gobbled up by me. But I wasn’t… I was disturbed! I closed my book. Rested back…

Someone was hurt… the common Marathi manoos was hurt!

I wanted to vent out the frustration. Then I saw the clock. Opened my lappie, set the timer for 30 mins, and logged into my Blogger account. I knew you guys are the best buddies to ventilate my thoughts to…

Its such a heartbreak to see how we Maharashtrians are being projected as an uncivilized and violent community on the basis of certain incidents that happened in the past few years. I have a strong feeling that my friends and colleagues ‘outside’ Maharashtra must be having a very different outlook towards a Marathi manoos. For you he must be a bully, wearing a kurta, glares, a vermilion mark on his forehead, a thick moustache with a beard, lathis or stones in hand… beating up people! I will be happy if this is just my assumption and not the reality… but if it isn’t still I wont blame you! The Marathi manoos is slowly getting alienated.. He is slowly getting ostracized.

What is projected towards to the people by these young, amateur, beginners in journalism is majorly devoid of the real issues crippling Maharashtra. I hate such kind of biased journalism by the media honkos… For I

believe Maharashtra is not all about Mumbai and Mumbai is not all about Maharashtra. What happened in the assembly could have been avoided. But new comers in the Maharashtra's politics wanted to grab eyeballs right from day One! I don’t support the MNS, neither do I support the SP. Fundamental values have never been a part of my life. For me Azmi and MNS both were wrong in their part. For Azmi, I just cant understand what was the fuss about speaking few sentences in Marathi? If you really respect Marathi as much as your mother (that’s how he defends himself) why are you fooling yourself by saying “I am not well versed in Marathi!!!” I want to ask him. Isn’t Marathi written in the same Devnagari script as is Hindi? And aren't 10 years enoughto learn few words in your 'motherly' language rather than learning the foul language that your son used outside the assembly! No I am not telling you to do so because Raj threatened you to, because MNS people were about to kick you… Do it for the people you represent for, the people of Maharashtra, whose official language is Marathi!

Regarding the so called “Guardians of Marathi Asmita”, you are the self proclaimed rulers, egoistic and arrogant, unknowingly and irresponsibly giving the common Maharashtrian a bad name. I strongly believe the issues that you picked up are not completely meaningless… but your antics have rendered them futile and pointless in the minds of others… Now that people have given you a chance to represent them, go ahead, give them back what they voted you for, shed the ‘dirty’ look you have got for yourself and take up some real issues and gain positive publicity! Bashing up a MLA in the Assembly, that too when Maharashtra is closing in on its 50th anniversary next May, certainly proves that you don’t understand the sanctity of the place you were placed in. If you really want to care for Marathi Asmita, go start a project for farmers in the Vidarbha under Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s name… go take care of the numerous prestigious forts of Maharaj which are in ruins today. Marathi is a very sacred language. Don’t play politics on it. Even I wont stay quiet if someone voluntarily disrespects Marathi.

So the issue is not wrong, but the way is... Azmi, I believed, disrespected it, no doubt, but that’s his nature. He provoked you, you got provoked! And look what you ended up in! He is getting unnecessary publicity and sympathy from everyone, and you..? Got banned for the next 4 years! You let the ‘rowdy’ tag get affixed even more firmer not just on you but even on the common Marathi manoos who has no say in this, who innocently watches your antics in the news and switches channels to avoid getting hurt themselves…

You are committing a much worse crime than anyone else, making your beautiful state now look as a hub of goondaism and dirty politics. But may be I am asking too much from you, aint I? Whatever! I will follow what Barack Obama said, “LETS CHOOSE HOPE OVER FEAR”

(Okay so my timer says 28:17... so let me end this post..)

Yes I hope that the tides will change, this melodrama will end, a Marathi manoos will be seen by ‘others’ the way he actually is… Soft spoken, friendly, emotional and yes... an ardent and a passionate music lover…