Swach Bharat Stupidity

Swach Bharat Stupidity

So this morning I was on my way to work when I happened to notice a bunch kids in their school uniforms enthusiastically sweeping and cleaning up the road outside their school gates. It took me back to the days when I was in what used to be grandiosely named as RSF- Road Safety Patrol of my school where we used to stand outside our school gates every morning and direct traffic – the vehicles driven by parents coming to drop off their kids at school.  Now before you get the wrong idea that I was a little goody two shoes at school and teachers pet and what not, let me confess that the thing which attracted me to the road patrol was, more than the cool arm band, the chance to get off the daily prayer time while I stood outside the gates ordering the cars to stop with just a flick of my wrist. I was never very religious when young and doing group worship therapy at the beginning of the day, every day, was at the bottom of my wish list. Ergo Road safety patrols duty. I also, for your kind information, joined the scouts- the sea scouts to be specific because I had dreams of turning sailor and enlisting in the navy. Well, that was before I read in the newspapers that the Indian navy had ships which sunk when tied up to the dock in peacetime. That kind of safety record made me change my mind about enlisting in the navy and I ended up applying to the army (with a plan of turning into a tank man if selected) after school. But the Indian army in one of its wisest decisions to date refused to grant me admission and saved themselves the cost of organizing a court martial for insubordination and refusing to follow rules- which would have happened as surely as Adam ate the apple, for I was never very good at blindly following orders – like all those poor guys who pleaded so at the Nuremberg trials after world war two.

Anyway to come back to the sweeping school kids, I thought about how these kids were outside on the orad cleaning up everyones litter while classes were going on inside the school for other kids. Is this what the parents of these kids would have wanted for their wards when they paid the steep admission fees for their children in such prestigious schools? Cleaning up after oneself is all very good and proper but is it the duty of the school to clean their roads using the children who have come for an education? To learn something?  Or should they have employed some cleaning personnel, paid them a decent salary and made sure that they cleaned up the school while the kids were where they belonged? In the classroom? Will making the kids sweep the streets for one day really make achange to the cleanliness of the orad? And who will clean it every day after this? Will it become the duty of the children- to sweep the streets for an hour daily if they need to get an education? These and other questions were revolving around my mind all day and I could not come to any conclusion.

They say the more things change the more they remain the same but in the case of government it seems they  get even more stupider with every change of regime. The new governments executive diktat (like the gulag sending Stalinists) to implement a program calle swach bharat abiyan is the latest manisfestation of colossal governmental stupidity. By asking people, common people, to clean up common areas the government has abdicated its responsibility of questioning why it spends thousands and thousands of crores on conservancy workers and on outsouricng contracts to private companies for cleaning and still nothing seems to be done and our streets remain filthy. By failing to question those responsible it shifts the onus on the citizens who have already paid taxes which were collected by the government and paid to the outsouricng firms for cleaning. So what happened to all that money? Why is no one taking these firms to task? Why is all this being covered up by asking common man to volunteer?

Shouldn’t each one of us be doing their own work to their best of the abilities? Or should we all pitch in to do the work of others who prefer to slack off and will never be called to account for their gross dereliction of duty? Can we cover up this total lack of responsibilty by just volunteerism? And will no one get up and say the emperor has no clothes on?

I rest my case, fellow citizens.

The Indian Politician And The Death Of Innocent Civilians

The Indian Politician And The Death Of Innocent Civilians

So I read this sms forward about how the Israelis were hiding their population behind missiles (missile-screens) and how the Hamas were hiding their missiles behind population (people-screen) which I found not only funny but also quite thought provoking. Ever since the brief Gaza war started nameless members of parliament (Indian parliament) have taken to rushing to the floor of the parliament to raise the problems of the Palestinians in Gaza- never mind that not a single one of these MP’s has ever (never) raised a single voice in favor of their constituents who voted to send them to parliament and who are living out their miserable lives hoping that their government would do something for them to better their existence. But when did domestic policy ever bring votes to an Indian politician, so it’s been the Gaza, Gaza and Gaza for them all week in the hope of a few Muslim votes consolidating behind them for having defended “Islam”- never mind the illogicity of it all as the Palestinian question has never been about Islam- or that’s what the Palestinians themselves say.

Anyway I digress. To come back to why the Israelis were bombing the Gazan's they give a perfectly logical reason that the Hamas terrorists (yeah, there I said that- I used the word terrorists- for in my book- any group which kills non combatants and innocent civilians are terrorists no matter their justification or whatever appellations they hide behind as freedom fighters) were digging tunnels which they were using to cross over into Israeli territory to kill civilians. And the Israelis responded as they always do- disproportionate use of force which targeted many innocents- what’s called collateral damage. Now before we blame the Israelis let us reflect as how to this war started and who provoked it all- you can’t stick your hand in a beehive, get stung and later blame the bees for not discriminating between the hand which was used to rob honey and the hand which didn’t. When you poke a beehive, you do it expecting to get stung and Hamas knew what it did would bring the Israelis wrath down on the heads of innocent Palestinian citizens who were caught in the cross-fire. So the blame for the whole “deaths of civilians/collateral damage” thing should be laid squarely at the feet of Hamas – who coldly, callously brought this destruction down on their own people, regardless of the fact that it was Israeli bombs which killed them. 

If the Hamas terrorists had even just a bit of conscience they would engage the Israelis in open warfare and not from behind the skirts of their innocent civilians. But when did terrorists care about ordinary people, people like you and me? They simply use us to justify their bloodthirstiness and their need to take others lives for their own fanatic causes. So like all terrorists everywhere the Hamas have the blood of their people on their own hands as much as the Israelis have- no two opinions about it. And so do their backers and financiers- the gulf sheiks who channel money into jihad in the name of Islam and just end up killing innocent Muslims who would welcome hospitals, schools and other real help rather than armaments and munitions designed to reap more blood of the innocent.  But the little people never get a chance to voice their opinions do we? Its all realpolitik, high finance and strategic moves- no matter that the people who die don’t have a say in their lives.

And to add insult to injury we see the sight of these false guardians, these crocodile tear-shedders who jump into the fray whenever there is a communal issue anywhere they can use to get votes. Do these people know about the poverty rates in India? About the malnutrition rates? About the number of orphans and elder citizens who don’t have access to orphanages or old age homes? About the lack of drinking water- disease free, potable drinking water all over the country? About public toilets and sanitation facilities? About farmer suicides and farms depending (still- even in this century) on rain fed irrigation? Or how certain districts in India see more deaths and misery due to poverty than even war torn gaza? Now when did you last hear our honorable MP’s disrupt Parliament for these questions? Or our independent newspapers carry these questions on their front-pages for a whole week? And we say we live in a free country. Do we? Really?

A Normal Birth- is always a Miracle…

When is good news really good news? When do you feel the need to tell the truth regardless of consequences? Is it better to tell some good news and immediately follow it up with bad news?

I was in the canteen today having a cup of coffee when I got the call that I was needed in the labour room (on a emergency callover) for an eclampsia patient -that’s the condition when a woman in labour ends up having convulsions(fits) and starts bleeding from excessively high blood pressure and can die of bleeding.

Well, I rushed over there and took over the case and started the necessary treatment. Meanwhile I couldn’t help glancing over (occasionally) to the next bed where a delivery of a child was going on. The person doing the delivery was a postgraduate student of the gynecology&obstetrics department  and she soon pulled out the baby (naturally) and then without bothering to check whether the baby was breathing or not- she handed it over to the two house-surgeons who were assisting the birth (trying to learn  hands-on) and she went away.

The two house-surgeons, both of them just passed out graduates with only theory knowledge and no practical experience -were trying to make the baby breathe for the first time- and this has to happen withing the first 5-6 mins after birth to prevent any brain damage due to lack of oxygen

Unfortunately this baby was not responding even after 7-8 mins, at which point normally the doctors usually give up their efforts and declare that the baby was born dead. Meanwhile I was also so busy with the patient i was treating-that I only had time to glance over occasionally. By now 8-9mins had passed and both the house-surgeons (and me) knew that the baby was gone by now- almost ten minutes without oxygen to the brain? What chance had the kid?…the house-surgeons as per procedure should have called for expert help- if they realized that a case had gone beyond their capacity to treat. But stubbornly they kept trying the same old thing without asking for help- which is the highest crime you can do according to me.

Till finally, the staff nurse in the ward (prompted by me) went and called the on-duty pediatrician who came up and spent a few more minutes trying the same things already tried unsuccessfully by the two house-surgeons. He then as one final effort inserted a suction tube up the baby’s throat and vacuumed out the thick mucus plug which was obstructing the lungs. Suddenly, the baby took her first breathe and started crying .  The pediatrician handed over the baby to the two house-surgeons to complete the formalities and went away to wash. The two students consulted between themselves and decided to put the time of birth on the case sheet - as just a few minutes ago as they didn’t want to get into any trouble in the future..they were giggling that this was the time they would even use for drafting the horoscope for the kid. They then placed the crying baby beside the unconscious mother and went away. 

As no one told the mother that her baby had been without oxygen for almost 12-14mins and had died first and then come back- she would be very happy if she learnt the news. But will she be as happy if she learnt that because of the oxygen deprivation during the crucial period- her kid would be most probably a retard…oops a special-needs kid in the future? Will she be happy then- being saddled with a child who will never be normal her life-long but be a burden? Was this good news or bad news? that their kid had first died and then miraculously come back to life (getti-ayasu, as they call it)...or that because the kid was late in breathing the parents would have to suffer with the kid all their lives (especially financially) and it would have even been better to let the child die after the first 10mins when it didnt breathe ? who can decide that? thank god it wasnt my case and i didnt have to make that decision..

And this episode proves the entirely stupid idea of posting untrained doctors to rural areas as compulsory rural service- it would be an utter disaster for the rural people if that happens. Till junior doctors get enough experience they should never be allowed to treat patients by themselves- there are so many things which can go wrong and peoples health is not the place to gain political points. Those politicians who support this idea should be hanged.