New Year

Another year has arrived and the old one gone forever. As usual my thoughts stray towards many events and persons. My first thought is towards my own country and people. It has been a year of awakening. They seem to have realized how they are being duped by the political class and have thrown up a credible young leader, Arvin Kejriwal. I wish Arvind and his new Aam Aadmi party all the best this year and hope they come to power in the next elections and save this country.

Next my thoughts go to the women of my country. They too seem to have woken up to the reality of exploitative paternalism. I see a silver lining in the massive protests by them against sexual and economic exploitation. They make 50% of the electorate and if they want to they can change the face of this country. My prayer is that they do it.

Next in my list is the average Indian who needs medical help. Falling sick in this present day scene is worse than death. The government has gradually withdrawn and has allowed private players into the health scene. Result is that no poor man has access to quality health care and health care costs are the major reason for debt burden among the Indian poor. I wish the state wakes up and provides care with dignity to the majority of my countrymen and women.

I am now 71 years old and in the evening of my personal and professional life. I do believe in a super mega force that controls my life and I am grateful to that force for having kept my faculties intact and allows me to think rationally and look after my patients, kept me fit that I can indulge in golf and badminton, my hearing well enough to enjoy talking to people and indulge in my love of classical music and my eye sight to enjoy the nature around me.

To my small family, my grateful thanks for the affection shown despite the fact of my being not relating to them often enough.

To my friends, [doctors, golfers, badminton buddies and others] my thanks for their company.

And, despite minimizing my practice hours, to my patients who continue to have faith in me, I owe them a grateful thank you.

Lastly, to you all, my blog readers, a very happy new year.

Outrage

The nationwide outrage over the assault and rape of a young woman in a moving bus made me feel a bit optimistic about the nation’s future. There are other such cases occurring all over the country and the law enforcement and the society at large seem to think that crime against women is not a serious crime and not worthy of strenuous investigation.

There several reasons for this. Most of them sociological. As long as society is patriarchal and women are treated as objects of sexual gratification for men designed by nature, instances of rape will continue whatever may be the deterrent punishment. Add to this attitude, rapid urbanization and influx of single young men to metropolitan areas in search of jobs, you have a tailor made situation of these instances to occur.

Will amendment to the laws help? The demand by the protesters that the crime of rape be punishable by death penalty is a deterrent/ will the assault on women come down? How about the law being misused? What will happen if a man is falsely accused? My personal view is that strict enforcement of law will only help to some extent. Real progress can only be achieved if we learn to treat women as fellow humans and parents bring up both boys and girls in the same manner

Coming to the role of women. What can they do apart from protesting? They should boycott and get their parents, boyfriends, brothers to protest against the electronic media and movies which exploit women and show them as sex objects to sell a commodity or a film. The songs and dance sequence in the so called item numbers are nothing but veiled pornography. They must also learn to dress decently. Liberalization and economic independence doesn’t mean that one goes around wearing next to nothing or wearing clothes designed to show explicitly one’s body contours.

Arvind Kejriwal has let loose the hidden resentment against the whole governmental hierarchy and the protests which one is seeing in this unprecedented scale is partly due to his activism.

I hope women will vote en masse for the Aam Aadmi party in the next elections