Sunday, January 20, 2008

What irritates me?

When in a group one speaks in a language that others don’t understand.
When one speaks out of turn.
When one asks a question when he knows the answer.
When one speaks louder than required.
When one coughs or sneezes without a hanky covering his mouth/nose.
Gives information culled from that morning’s newspaper.
Gives opinion without a knowledge base.
Doesn’t know when to stop.

This happens frequently in day to day dealings.

Now you know why I have taken to meditation!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Hole in one

In the game of golf, hole in one has a special place. This means that on a three par hole your shot from the tee box lands the ball in to the hole. You will not get the same recognition if you were to do a four par in two strokes when it is called a birdie or a five par in three when it is called an eagle. Getting birdies and eagles is not uncommon but to get a hole in one is extremely rare and a golfer holds this as an achievement despite the fact that there is an element of luck in addition to skilled shot making in achieving this feat.

Life time of playing and you may not get his distinction and one may get it in the very first year of playing. It happened to a friend of mine within three months of playing and he couldn’t understand all the fuss the others made of this because he still was not aware of the rarity of the feat. Another one who achieved this after three decades of golf did it in the most unusual way. He mishit he shot which rolled all the way to the green and dropped into the hole. When he went in search of the ball which had sped and having not found it anywhere around he looked casually and found it resting at the bottom of the hole. A bad shot getting rewarded was his comment. This did not prevent his friends and others in the clubhouse extracting their pound of flesh in the form of several rounds of drinks at his cost.

I achieved this feat two Sundays ago. This short three par 135 yards, has a visible green and when the good seven Iron shot soared high and dropped near the pin I had no idea that it had dropped inside the hole till the caddies who could actually see the ball disappearing into the hole jumped up and screamed ‘ hole in one’. It took a few seconds to sink in and then it was few minutes of pure ecstasy and then on to some elated mood. That I had to stand rounds of drinks was a pleasure. It took nearly 20 years of playing this game to get this distinction.

Our club rewards the getter of a hole in one with a branded travel bag, ten cases of beer, 5 bottles of whiskey, six bottles of vodka and one case of white wine. As I couldn’t carry this booty in my small car, I had to requisition the club’s van to transport this to my home. My drinking is confined to an occasional weekend beer and the only way to get rid of this quantity of liquor which was occupying the much needed space in my garage was to give it away. I spread the word around that I am holding a garage offer. It took just three days for my friends to clear the whole lot to my delight!

Many of these wished me to keep getting hole in ones.

Silence

To remain silent needs a lot of discipline. Natural outlet for ones thought is to give expression and the best way is to mouth it. Most people love to talk and very few to listen. Even when they listen their brain is thinking what to say to what they are listening. When one is alone and the mouth is therefore necessarily shut one can remain silent. Easy said than done. The mind is active and the run of thoughts is incessant and thus you are not silent though you are not making noises. Emptying the mind of all thoughts, I believe, gives one bliss and meditation helps you to achieve this. I have just started with one technique that was taught to me and hopefully when it happens I will let you all know. At present I am at the stage of learning to sit cross-legged on the floor for the 35 minutes and let me tell you that it is no bliss.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Female Infanticide

One of the worst crimes that is being committed is selective killing of female fetuses and infants soon after birth. Occasionally it is the mother who is responsible adds more tragedy to this crime. India takes the pride of place in committing and helping to perpetrate this most heinous crime against female life. Calling ourselves a developing nation is meaningless unless we give equal social and economic status to our women and treat them with respect they deserve with out being condescending. Hopefully with women’s empowerment this crime will become less and will in the course of time disappear.

I like to quote Dr.M.K.Mani a renowned Nephrologist and a sensitive human being from Chennai.

Cradle baby scheme

One or other illegal, worse, criminal action that governments all over the country have been unable to prevent is large scale murder of female infants. In 2002, the government of Tamilnadu introduced a scheme to prevent murder by persuasion if not by enforcement. Cradles were placed outside government hospitals and the girl babies could be deposited there. No questions were asked and the children were sent to orphanages to be brought up there. In few instances the parents openly brought their chideern over. They were counseled and in some cases they changed their minds and took the children back. The Dahrmapuri government hospital reported recently that it had received 955 babies since the scheme started. 39 were boys; 50 of the children were taken back by their parents. Despite this way out, many parents still resort to infanticide and between 35 and 70 cases are reported every year. Our neighboring Salem district the female to male birth ratio was 850 females to every 1000 males in the year 2000. Later studies are not available for the district as a whole, but studies from different primary health centres [PHCs] and villages show depressing ratios of between 706 and 901.Perhaps the cradle baby scheme needs more publicity in rural areas.

Pretty dismal isn’t it?

Kill the patient?

This morning while examining a patient I got a phone call. I told the caller that I will call him back after I finish this patient! The patient had the grace not to believe me and stayed put on the examination table.