Learn from Bhutan

With reference to the recent ghastly tragedy that occurred in Uttarakand we have a few important lessons to learn from the Bhutanese.

Geographically Bhutan is located  to the northeast of Uttarakand and shares same kind of topography and weather pattern. It too has a very high risk of flooding but we don't hear much of this in this small nation. Let us see how they have tackled this. I visited Bhutan 4 years ago and these are the reasons why.

1. Restricted tourism and taking a certified guide is mandatory. By this the Bhutanese have managed to minimize the pressure on their fragile ecosystem. Guides help to streamline the trade and also create employment. There are hardly any haphazard sales kiosks and tourist related trade is strictly controlled.

2. Minimum deforestation. Probably Bhutanese Himalayas are the only remaining part of Himalayas where the original forests still exist. This naturally helps to prevent soil erosion and consequent flooding

3. Graded development. Theirs is a go slow approach.Television had just made its advent when I was there. There area few hydel projects in the making but they are well planned. Buildings are all planned and take into account the need to do.

4. Happiness more important that perceived prosperity. Bhutanese are fortunate in having a king who believes in making the people happy and the development efforts are designed to do this and not towards making them rich. The guide who escorted around was a typical example. Educated, fun loving, urbane, steeped in Buddhism and contented.

4. No litter. Man made litter clogs the environment as we can see everywhere in Uttarakand. This is not so in Bhutan.

Will our politicos wake up before another disaster strikes us?

Let Mukesh Ambani build now

Mukesh Ambani built a 400 crore dwelling for him and family to live in Mumbai few years ago [see the pictures in the net]. He is supposedly not living there because Vastu experts told him it is inauspicious! In the first place to build like that for a single family in a poor country like ours is in itself vulgarly shameful and not living in it after having built it is even worse. Then, so what, when our politicos and bureaucrats are wasting hundreds and thousand of crores of rupees, what is Mukesh's 500 crores.

That the Ambani's are amongst the richest of men gives them an opportunity now to really build. This is take on hand in the reconstruction of the flood damaged infrastructure of the holy land of Uttarakand. Given their undoubted ability to get work done by hook or crook, and their enormous wealth, they can do it, but will they?

That is the question

The Braca Gene
Women who carry this gene are almost certain to get Breast cancer some time in their age often during their reproductive age. This cancer is often is of a severe type and the advice to get the breasts surgically removed makes sense. Many women who are so advised wait till they complete their family.
Angelina Jolie's decision to have this surgery is therefore should come as a major boost to those who are carriers of this gene in making this difficult decision.

Stink spreads
I have never been a fan of the shorter version of cricket which goes by the name of 20/20 and the Indian brand name of IPL[Indian premier league]. My dislike was mainly for cricketing reasons. I hold the view that it is destroying the real cricket that is test cricket. This short form of cricket is vulgar, flashy,base to say the least. I say this despite its huge popularity. Like many such things in our country things of value don't always are popular but something that appeals to coarser instincts gets the nod of the general public. That sadly is what Indian society is today.
Now that three players were caught for match fixing and their connections and operations have spread across to others and the latest is the BCCI president himself! Though as yet a rumour the stink is spreading and I hope this will put an end this monster of a game

Asghar Ali Engeneer
He passed away a few days ago. He was 74. Asgar Ali was a well known Islamic Scholar who tried his best to interpret Islam to solve the problems that face Muslims who live in today world. He also tried to educate non Muslims and help them accept the basic principles of the religion  His writing style was lucid and was free of the mambo jumbo which one often sees  in writers who try and interpret religion. His back ground [came from a an illustrious Bohra Muslim family with background of both secular and riligeous education] An engineer by profession, he gave it up and in later years devoted his life to his writing and bringing about communal harmony.
We need more of  Asghar Alis.

Reading
It was William Osler who advised doctors to come out of their shells and do something different than what they do in their professions. This may mean even reading the railway almanac!. This great physician gave this advice more than a century ago and this holds good even to day. I find my doctor friends immersed in work that they find it hard to find time to do anything else. But are they all really that busy? and then why must they do anything else? Is doctoring not enough fulfillment?
Valid questions. To answer these, firstly, one can always find time if one knows how to manage it. Most GPs I know work hours till late in the night and have their afternoon hours free when they either do personal work or sleep. Many also wake up late in the morning. Most don't exercise. Lack of other activities leaves them fairly ignorant of the world around them and as most illnesses have some socio psychological relationship, their lack of knowledge leaves them often unprepared to face patients and their problems. This also makes them that much less interesting as people.
Reading as advised by Osler is an excellent way to spend one's time. Judicious selection of what you read also makes you [if you are inclined to be one] a better human being. There is also a great variety to choose from. There is biography, travelogue. fiction, detective stories, crime, history, philosophy, short stories and the like to suit all tastes.
I began reading Robertson Davies's works five years back thanks to one of my friend's recommendation.His world is principally urban Canada set in the middle and later 20th century. He wrote several novels and presently I am reading ' The lyre of Orpheus' the last book in a triology. The others are Rebel Angels and What is Bred in the Bone. Another book of his I liked is called the Cunning man. It tells the story of an unusual physician whose methods at arriving at a diagnosis were unconventional. It is an interesting read

Return
It has been quite a while I wrote. This has made a few of you wonder if I have been ill. Happily, I am well and have completed my 72nd year![time to change my profile]. It has been more than 4 years since I have started blogging and more than 300 posts later, the interest is till there not withstanding the poverty in writing in the past few months. I promise to write more often than I have been doing.

Hoax
As write this piece, another scandal has broken out in our much hyped IPL cricket. Three cricketers were caught fixing the game. I was not in the least surprised. Given the prevailing atmosphere in the country where graft rules the roost, where top politicians and beurocrats openly practice and flaunt it, how can young cricketers be an exception?
The whole IPL is huge thamasha and hoax played on an unsuspecting and rather naive public.
It is certainly not cricket as I have bemoaned in this blog number of times.

They are killing this great and sedate game called cricket.