Laughing out Loud!

Beautiful Quote in today's newspaper- the first thing that made me laugh out loud today- "The only difference between the taxman and the taxidermist, is that, at least the taxidermist, leaves the skin on!"

Laughing out loud!.. the quintessential emotion to have a good day.. can really be a blessing in these hectic times. Forget, stopping to smell the roses. we barely make the time to eat a healthy breakfast, these days! There is something about laughter and good company that makes your day complete- you may have worked your ass off the whole day, let your temper fly on a few unfortunate souls, have the worst luck at you favorite past time, and yet, there is something about "laughing out loud' that can smooth all that.

Mass Message

I watched the much awaited, much hyped "My name is KHHan" or MNIK this week. Must say its is a surprisingly nice film. Unlike his trademark peppy, feel-good films, Karan Johar has managed to pull off a semi-serious film with a message, thanks to good acting over the board.

Forget, what has already been written/ said about his film (this is not a film review). I'm more concerned with the message the film conveys- about secularism, tolerance and universal brotherhood. ( Man! i'm sounding like a devout Gandhian!).

The portrayal of racism and religious divide, depicted in the film, are all very real problems in the world we live in today. Wars, riots and violence are all ultimately related to the fact that one set of people cannot accept the beliefs and principles of the other set. The human tendency to enforce ones beliefs on others, almost a kind of survival tactic implanted into our systems by Mother Nature, is the principle factor behind this violence. Perhaps, Nature has thoughtfully designed our race such, to keep our proliferating population under check?

Lets leave the philosophy for another time. Why cant WE, arguably the most intelligent species on this planet, live to fight FOR each other, and not WITH each other? Why do we let petty things like religion, race, caste and color be reason enough to fight wars or cause meaningless violence? Why are we biased against our own creed- why do we label Muslims as fanatics? or a Sardar as a fool? Fools and fanatics can exist across all humanity.

Although, this film is a late in coming, considering the series of films that have already been made on this subject- its does reinforce the same strong message of tolerance. But by far the best movie that depicts this story of our times is the Pakistani film "Kudha ke liya"- a mind-blowing moving account of senseless fanatism.

Modern Day Slavery!

Compulsory rural service for all medical students is soon going to be made into law with effect from the next academic year. I really empathize with all those unfortunate M.B.B.S students who are going to be subjected to this meaningless activity, in the name of "service".

Why meaningless?.. because its plain stupidity to expect a hapless, untrained medico, fresh out of M.B.B.S to be the backbone of healthcare for all the rural folk in this country. In short, we are taking our most inexperienced medical personnel to serve 75% of the Indian population!. That amounts to majority of our population being under-serviced as far as health care goes!. There is a clear discrimination of policy when it comes to tackling urban and rural healthcare. Even the proposed 4 year Master of Rural Health (MRH) is a clear violation of the rights of rural citizens to equitable health care like there urban counterparts.

Most of all, it is the poor medico who is going to be worst affected by these thoughtless rules. Not only is he called to serve in an environment of poor infrastructure, he has to sacrifice ties with his family, work for paltry sums of salary to get his degree.

Wasted Efforts

A newspaper initiative in recent times is going out of its way to promote better ties between India and Pakistan by organizing Indo-Pak cultural meets including literature meets , song, dance and music shows in various cities across the subcontinent. Point is- will this in any way help in promote better ties? No and Never!..it will never take away the seeds of mistrust that are embedded in the minds of the population .. especially not if we have a Pak foreign minister blaring into the microphone, declaring in fanatic spirit his "hate for India" to a crowd of equally fanatic charged Pakistanis.To end our mutual mistrust stint that has been so since the inception of our countries, we need strong political and geographical strategy. The answer is to draw the borders,stop the terrorism and step-down the military offensives. All this campaign for "better cultural ties" is pure eyewash in the absence of a long-lasting solution!

Health Care Reform

Healthcare in India is an industry in want of good management. The onus of providing this precious service has been divided between the private and public institutions. The public institutions are overburdened, under-financed, and notoriously mismanaged. The private institutions cannot claim to be any better. Although they provide a better work culture, they are famous for over pricing and over-investigating.

The poorest of the poor are always the worse affected by these policies. Disregarded by the government hospitals and drained of all savings by the private hospitals they are at the receiving end at all times.

The government in some states, has taken steps to fund the expenses of healthcare for BPL families by providing health packages. Although well intentioned, this is like most government policies is bereft of forethought for possible repercussions. An old adage summarizes this policy- "give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you have feed him for a lifetime". Anything handed out on a platter, for grabs, is always ignored for value. Anything worked for or fought for is valued beyond its true price.

These schemes are also exploited by many- some who use it to obtain free healthcare not appropriate for their income, some who pocket money meant for medicines/services rendered and others who take kickbacks for referring the poor souls to an institution that would ultimately benefit from the ingress of money to its coffers.

No scheme involving large amounts of money can be adequately insulated in India from corruption. Unless we incorporate good work ethos and eliminate poverty- which cannot ever happen overnight- we are slaves to corruption!

How then, can we hope to implement better health care to our masses?

Instead of putting lump sums of money into schemes that concentrate on referral and private/public tertiary care setups, we must build around a three-tier system of healthcare with most of the finances and maximum emphasis on the base of the pyramid- the rural health care centres and district healthcare centers. A large chunk of problems can be tackled by these setups itself- if adequately staffed and equipped. Private setups in the rural areas must be encouraged- with incentives such as tax-free holidays (on the lines of IT companies); these centers must be monitored for quality of care by independent responsible observers. Medical colleges must be ordered to adopt a district level hospital and dispense the required heath care to all subjects in that district. Tele-conferencing between district level physicians and those at the tertiary care center must be offered for counselling regarding difficult to treat cases. Unless this kind of infrastructure is in place, it would be meaningless to deploy fresh medical graduates in the grass root centers by compulsion.

Private and public hospitals in two-tier and three-tier cities must be the next target of the government health policies. Only by reducing the burden (by diverting simple-to-treat case to the district level) on these institutions first, can we begin their reconstruction. Strict monitoring of health services dispensed must be undertaken to ensure quality care.

The final priority of the government must be the public institutions in the metros. These must focus primarily on specialized services and advanced training. Soaps and services must parallel the private healthcare setups to be able to survive the economics of the times.

Divide and Rule

Remember that ol' British policy that we read in our history books-"Divide and rule"- seems like its no longer history!.. In India today, politicians are clamoring for separate states, divisive policies and vote bank politics.

While the cries for "Telangana" in Andhra Pradesh show no signs of reversal, anti-North Indian sentiments are being voiced by Marathi political honchos (no surprise that both these issues are being raised by politicians not currently in power- obviously with the single-minded focus to attract a category of voters).

No party can claim to be "truly universal"- the Left in Bengal bats for the "labor" classes, and of late, has pulled out a religion based reservation policy, which no doubt is to appease the large Muslim refugee population in the state. The Congress has always been the cunning fox in any policy- pulling out all kinds of soaps to pacify its vote base. The BJP is probably the party that has made it preferences most obvious since its inception- always playing the Hindu card to perfection.

India today is at the behest of such hare-brained polices of those who sit in the seats of power. If we have become a player at the world stage in the recent past, it is not "due to" these policies but rather, INSPITE of them!

If only we had better sense prevailing in our political class, we would have reached our current position, decades earlier. Still "aall is not so unwell", as the Gen-Next of Indian Politics is showing signs of sound judgement. One hopes that some sense will soon put an end to all this nonsense!