Keep the faith . . .

Gutsy job !, originally uploaded by heartthatbeats.

"If God were perfect, there would be no disease, no death". And we expect doctors to cure all diseases without any complications & to help us purchase an eternal life.

Now that we have bags full of money, we look upon the hospital as though they were megastore where we could walk in and buy good health, cure for all the God-made-diseases, have the wrinkles on our face tweaked and book ourselves piped supply of youthful life delivered right into the comfort of our homes. We even want to buy this state-of-the-art on-demand available 24x7 erection of whichever part of our body and our spirits.

Well, To Insure Prompt service we can TIP (new-age name for consultation fee) the sales boys or girls (again new-age name for doctors). And because we pay them they have to deliver what we bought, deliver well-packed without a blot on the wrapper. Dare you remove the price tag, we want our friends to see that.

How very foolishly human we are !

Actually God made disease & death on purpose and He made them so perfect that no human can ever change that.

Think about it.

Only God is perfect !

This sonata of sarcasm has been inspired by recent reports of medical negligence and public unrest towards doctors and hospitals.

The general perspective towards human body & life has become warped these days. And the ability to spend money gives people a sense of omnipotence - so when they can afford to buy a perfect cure & a long life then why can't doctors & hospitals deliver? This is impossible because neither is human body a machine whose parts & processes are well-defined & predictable that could be re-engineered to perfection, nor are doctors Gods who by the stroke of their magical hands could make diseased, degenerating & dying bodies new.

I do not mean to endorse negligence or medical malpractices. For the people on the other side, I still maintain that medicine is not a business but a noble profession whose main objective is to deliver compassionate care and money is only a byproduct meant for sustaining the main product.

I do believe that all major & un-expected medical outcomes & mishaps should be investigated in detail to increase scientific knowledge and to rule out / confirm any negligence. All negligence should be penalized. But the natural course of the disease, unavoidable complications of a procedure and unexpected response of the body should not be construed as negligence.

The patient & family has right to know what happened but they also have the duty to understand it in the right perspective. They also need to believe.

No doctor ever wants his patient to have complications. No doctor ever wants his patient to die. It does not even make commercial sense for the doctor or the hospital.

It is a fact that many a doctors have become the victim of the same greed that plagues the rest of our society and corporates owning the "flourishing healthcare industry" focused more on the top lines and the bottom lines - life line gets blurred out somewhere in-between.

Be warned that it is very naive to believe that government hospitals or doctors working there are sacrosanct. The stories of happiness and the stories of sorrow are equally prevalent everywhere - and so are the stories of greed or negligence.

Our healthcare system is not ideal but there is no fool-proof system anywhere in the world. If our system lacks accountability then it may be disheartening to know that one of the most accountable system in the west has the highest rate of medical litigation.

I wish there were a system where money was never a consideration in the doctor-patient relationship. Where money would not be a factor in how the medical systems were established and the medicine practised. Where money would not be dictating a patient's expectations out of doctors, disease or death. A system where there was no money but still high values !

Yes, I know I'm a dreamer !

Whatever be the system in place, whatever be the reality on ground, let us not forget that we all have to die one day. Death is inevitable, it may come in different forms and shapes and sizes, it may come at different places and in different hands but come it surely will. And before she arrives she will send her messengers, her agents in the form of pain & disease. This is the natural culmination of the body, the natural culmination of life. The old torn and worn-out clothes have to be shed.

However, we always remain !

So, keep the faith.

Kutumb

Dhawans, originally uploaded by heartthatbeats.

We share the same roof, the same floor. Cry the same tear, laugh the same laughter, eat the same food and fight the same fight. We thank the accident of nature that brought us together. We share the same dreams and the same fears. Same are our likes and prejudices. Should the ruthless destiny ever rip us apart - we will still always remain - a Family !

Happy Valentine's Day !

On Valentine's Day the best expression of love is through a song. And how I wish I could have put here pictures of all the beautiful girls that I wanted to sing it for but survival instinct made me put my photographs of flowers instead !

I'm not a Valentine's day kind of a person and even my age doesn't permit me to be. But then what made me so loony & tuny?

दूरदर्शन पे एक समाचार देखा तो खून खौल उठा | हाथ में हथ्यार नहीं तो लेखनी से वार करने की इच्छा जाग उठी | देखा "राम की सेना" को कुछ "सीताओं" का तिरस्कार करते | योद्धाओं को देखा माताओं और बहनों के मुहँ पर अपना बल प्रर्दशित करते - प्रदर्शन जो की "रावन" को भी लज्जित कर दे | "राम सैनिक" जो भारतीय संस्कृति की सफ़ेद चादर में अपनी नपुंसकता छुपाये निर्बल नारियों को ज़मीन पे पटकते रहे | और बाकी रहा पौरुष दिखाना चाहते हैं St. Valentine पर |

So here's a special message to "Ram Sainiks" - Sita swayamwar was in no way less than any Valentine's day where a girl can exercise her right to choose her prospective groom. Dashrath did ages ago what later St. Valentine was to repeat. So on this Valentine's day all the "Ram Sainiks" should go home are revise their Ramayan.

But looking at those "Ram Sainiks" it's hard to even imagine if they would have ever looked at Ramayan, let alone read it.

सीता माता का पलन किसी पुरूष से कम नहीं हुआ | राम को दूर से देख कर ही सीता का हृदय विश्वस्त था की वोही उसके जीवन साथी होंगे | राजा दशरथ की विचार धारा शायद आज से भी युगों आगे थी | और ये पत्थर युग के मुट्ठालिक अगर शर्म से पत्थर भी बन जाएँ तो कोई राम इन्हे पाँव भी ना लगायें |

यह प्रेम गीत है सभी नारियों के प्रति प्रेम की अभिव्यक्ति एवं राम सैनिकों के लिए ललकार - अगर मुट्ठालिक जी ने दूध पिलाया है तो आओ और मुझे अपनी मर्दानगी दिखाओ |

Hey Ram !