Are we asleep?

Some times I wonder at our ruling class, the politicians and the beurocrats and their insensitivity to issues that affect peoples health. One such example is curbing tobacco use. Despite the overwhelming evidence of tobacco related deaths the measures taken to curb use of tobacco are very casual and most cases not enforceable.

Tobacco users die early and horribly due to lung and other cancers, serious respiratory problems and cardiovascular disease. Chronic smokers have ten to fifteen years less of life expectancy as compared to non smokers and those who have quit smoking before they are 40 years.

We have rules which says on the cigarette packet that it is injurious to health. The caption should be that it will kill you 15 years before time with cancer. We have instituted laws of no smoking in public places.  I have not seen any one booked for smoking in public which is seen every where. Tobacco products are available every where and I see a worrying trend of young persons especially young women smoking.

What we can do with powerful tobacco lobby not allowing stricter measures by the government and the feeble laws are not enforced?

There are some ways. Socially boycott smokers. Don't sit with them. I f one of your friend smokes, get up and move a way and make sure he knows why you did it. Women should not allow men to have sex with them  and vise versa!

TV ads even remotely connected with tobacco should be banned and so  in cinema smoking should not be shown even if the scene demands it.

farmers must resist the pressures from tobacco companies and start growing alternates cash crops.

What you and I can do is to socially ostracize smokers. Draconian it sounds is it not but it is in their interests.

It is better to have a good friends company for ten more years than see him die after intense suffering because of lung cancer.

Emancipation

The recent spate of atrocities on women made me wonder if there are reasons other than what I wrote in my previous postings. I came to realize that there are indeed historical reasons and they are numerous.

Let us examine a few. In the present day India people can be broadly classified as those living in the plains and those living in the hills. The people living in the hills which form a tiny minority are supposed to be those who were driven to go beyond accessibly [hills and forests] by the Aryan hordes that came into this country some 2 to 5000 years ago. Women of the hill people have no problems with their men as one can see in the north east, tribes of MP, Chattisgarh and even in states of Karnataka and Tamilnadu. They have traditionally placed women on a different footing than the people living in the plains of India which is the rest of the country.

History is replete with recorded instances of discrimination aimed at women. The earliest that comes to my mind is Rama’s story in the famous epic Ramayana. We call this man, Lord Rama and worship him as the embodiment of everything that is good and great in a human. He is called in Hindi as maryada prushotham. Let us see what was his attitude towards his wife Seetha who spent some years in captivity [some DMK historians say willingly!] in SriLanka ruled by demon King Ravana.On successful invasion and rescue, King Rama returns to the city of Ayodhya with his wife Seetha. He being a noble king interested in the welfare of his people, made clandestine inspections under disguise. In one of his forays he hears a washerman make derogatory remarks as to Seeta’s character when she was away for so long in Srilanka.

This has our Marayada Purushotham Rama worried. The only way to convince his people that his wife is pure [meaning she has not slept with Ravana] is to make her walk through fire. So he proceeds to test his reluctant wife with fire. Of course the ever virtuous and devoted wife comes through this fire test with flying colors and redeems the suspect honor. This kind of horror incidents are also there in Mahabharata [another revered epic] where another King of virtue called Dharmaraja [except for his compulsive gambling] who after losing everything he has in a game of dice, bets his own wife and loses. Then this virtuous man mutely witnesses stripping of his wife in front of an assembly of nobles.

So, men even in those times [2 to 5000 years ago] treated women as commodities and not as humans. They [women] lived and died catering to the whims and fancies of their men. A woman without her man was considered an economic liability and fit to be burned along with her husband when he died .This went by the name Suttee. This barbaric act prevailed till the late 19^th century and it took an English governor General William Bentick and an Indian social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy to put an end to this practice of widow burning.

The present day India the widow burning is replaced by female feticide and infanticide widely practiced in many states with possible exception of southern states. Widow neglect is also rampant. There is already an alarmingly skewed sex ratio in many northern states. Single men not being able to find brides are  a major problem especially in a society which treats women as chattels.

We are now facing very serious and very dangerous social disaster in the making. Unless society wakes up to this reality, there is going to be crisis of unimaginable proportion. Compulsory women’s education, preferential treatment and creation of employment opportunities, change in inheritance and divorce laws that will give women equal rights will help, but the most important is change of the male mind set.

Will it come about?

Curse

In this unfortunate country and people, we are not only saddled with rotten political leaders, but also are burdened with religious leaders who are a century behind times if one goes by the remarks made by them.

One says school girls should not wear skirts, another says woman should stay inside the house and look after the husband and children and run the house and yet another says the rape victim is to be equally blamed!

With such leaders at the helm do we have any hopes at all of becoming a developed nation?

The more I read and watch the media more confirmed I become in my pessimism about the future of my country.

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

When Calamity strikes

Reading latest issue of New England medical Journal I was impressed with the way Newyorkers handled a very grave emergency when the Typhoon Sandy hit them.

I imagined a few calamity situations that could hit this city of Bangalore and would like my fellow Bangaloreans to get a bit worried.

Scenarios

Massive power failure due to River Sharavathy drying up and no hydroelectric power and Raichur thermal power plant trips.

No water supply due to power pumps failing to pump water up the gradient from river Cauvery to the city

Out break of variant of HINI virus for which there is no cure and fatalities are 80%

Do we have a disaster management plan to tackle these three real possibilities?

Answer: my friends is a frightening NO

Obama Re elected

I have always been Obama's admirer. Not because I share his skin color but because of his basic qualities of head and heart. Social concerns are difficult to implement as they cost money and will be resisted by the affluent upper class [it will mean more taxes]. Spending money on welfare will necessarily mean more taxes and who will pay more taxes? Those who can afford to pay. The upper economic group. Many who belong to this group will have reached there after hard struggle and naturally will grudge the government who will ask them to pay more taxes to look after the less privileged.

Is there no other way to raise money other than taxation? There is. Our basic living style has to change. The way we now live encourages consumption and wastage. If we consume less and thus spend less we will improve savings and an economy based on savings is better than an economy based on borrowing and increased taxation. If there is less consumption what about production and what about job creation? Won't we have increased unemployment?

Difficult questions to answer. But watching wasteful living indulged by many just because they can afford,I am convinced that less consumption is the answer.

I hope USA is better off with Obama and democrats.