ONE PARAGRAPH THAT EXPLAINS LIFE!

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.

From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied:

"The world over -- 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'. And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?' "

"Happiness keeps you Sweet, Trials keep you Strong,

Sorrow keeps you Human, Failure keeps you humble and Success keeps you glowing,

but only Faith & Attitude Keeps you going...

weird rules for HIV patients...

There’s a weird rule of the government where if a patient wants, he/she can ask the doctor to not disclose his/her HIV status to his / her spouse…!!!! We have faced this problem many times during our post graduation years… we have come across not only men but even women who have turned out to be HIV +ve and then have asked us not to disclose this to their spouse, thus endangering and sort of ‘helping’ him/her to create one more HIV patient or maybe even more through their children… but then who can put this in the head of the non medical persons (morons) sitting at the head of the government and human rights organizations… when we look at the unsuspected spouse of the HIV +ve person we feel so sad for the person and are often filled with rage against the patient…but then nothing more can be done… would like to know comment of the readers regarding this…

risks at work...

Many a times I used to think about how stressed out doctors become during managing a patient because the patient has put his faith and life in our hands… it causes great stress whn we know that the patients life is in our hands… thinking this I used to feel there’s no job as stressful as this because others life depends on us…
Just yesterday lights had gone in our area as some tree had fallen down and uprooted an electric pole… the electrician was workin in the transformer area as I looked on… many a times small sparks flew here and there… I realized one small mistake and it could result in the death of the person…
Thinking over it I began to wonder which profession was more stressful.. one where others life is at risk or where your own life is at a risk…!!!

HIV + patient

Had a HIV + patient (aged 35) come for a checkup along with his wife n daughter… he had mostly got his HIV through his exploits with a prostitute… a look at his very innocent looking wife and kid made me ponder their future… I hoped the kid was conceived before his exploits so that she having the disease was unlikely… but then what about his wife… when this man couldn’t hold on to his sexual urge at ‘that’ point of time, it was unlikely that he may control it on his wife in future.. she was bound to contract it in future… I couldn’t do anything but pity on his family and their future… the kid was amused on seeing her father getting checked.. she was smiling and playing around… just the thought of maybe the innocent looking kid having the disease brought tears in my eyes… anger swelled in me for the patient… but now that the damage was already done… I felt helpless… if he could have avoided that one moment of urge, things could have been different today…
What exactly is the thing that compels a guy to go to a prostitute for his sexual gratification…??? I have tried to find it out by indirectly asking people I know who have been involved in this thing… but am still unable to get a satisfactory answer… one said… it was out of frustration… one went just for the sake of curiosity… one for fun… one went to see if he would be able to satisfy his wife since he was soon to get married… he said it would rather face an embarrassment before a prostitute than his wife… one went because the other went… so there were multiple factors involved… but then at what cost?? Haven’t they heard of something know as HIV or HBsAg??? These are viruses having no treatment at present… maybe someone should put photos of people suffering from HIV… maybe that would deter many from opting for such step… but then I have known even a doctor I knew going for the same… so… what else???

MA NIKETAN

Had the chance of paying a visit to an orphanage named MA NIKETAN in thane… it houses around 385 girls aged 4 to 22 yrs… such a wonderfully maintained orphanage… and most important was that there was proper utilization of funds and donation… all donors present there were very happy with the way the donations are used at tht place.. even the girls present there were smiling.. and of course their health showed that they were well cared for over there…
But the sad thing was that all these girls had either been abandoned by their parents or had been left alone after parents death or had run away from home… there were two 4 yr old girls who were left behind by their parents.. one look at them and you would want to literally kill those ppl who might have left them… they have one more branch at asangaon.. where there are around 400 girls..
If anyone can then they should go pay a visit to this orphanage sometime… if they are interested in volunteering themselves for help then they can join a NGO named UDAAN of whom even I am a member… we had a medical camp at tht place where I did their eye check up…

religion in transplants...!!!

Had a patient with severe pain, redness and watering in his left eye due to a problem of his cornea (black part of eye).. I advised him corneal transplant where I would fit a cornea of a donor into him… I explained the surgery and its benefits and complications to the patient… To my wonder more than the risks and complications of the procedure, the patient was more worried about who the donor might be… I mean religion wise and otherwise also… I was so surprised… I felt amused and angry at the same time… here he was in severe pain and all he thought of who the donor might be… not at all thinking that a person who was donating his eyes is by all means a very great person… and I wasn’t surprised at all that the patient was a maharashtrian… I myself am one but when it comes to eye and organ donations Marathi people are the last to volunteer… I realized that there is a great need of spreading awareness among people about eye donations…

Charity not easy…

I recently started operating for free on adivasis through a NGO… after the successful surgeries and seeing the smile on my patients, I got carried away a little… the NGO suggested that the next group might be taken after couple of months.. I thought why just wait for the NGO.. why not I only adopt those villages and operate… so I went to the concerned person and told her about my plan… what she told me opened my eyes and left me thinking. First of all now in june there are lot of winds…also rains will start… these two factors would make post operative care difficult as the adivasis don’t have anything for protection… also after operating they should be made to stay home for atleast a week considering they have very bad hygiene… and as they are daily wager, they wont sit back unless they are given food for the whole week… also transportation would be another problem…though not a big one… but then its just not about operating them but also looking at the social aspects and problems along with it…
Who said charity is easy!!!

My first dose of ‘on-the-face-criticism’

From the day I started my practice 2 ½ yrs ago I had never ever been subjected to criticism regarding my medical and surgical skills… atleast no one said it on my face… this wk I had a patient who was an old patient of my mom… she had some problem in her eye from 3 4 months… she told me she wanted to come to show me but she was told by some patient that I wasn’t as good as my mom… so she went to another doctor… after she didn’t get relief she then came to show to me… she told me this directly on my face… I didn’t show it on my face but inside I was hurt… well I wasn’t for the reason that tht other patient had felt that I wasn’t as good as compared to my mom as I still have miles to go to come in that category… but I was hurt as the ‘wasn’t good’ was good enough for the patient to ask her not to show me… tht hurt… but then guess even I am a human being and bound to make mistakes at some or the other time of my life… maybe the treatment I gave to tht patient didn’t relive her of her problem… but here the irony was inspite of the criticism this patient turned up to show me…!!! That brought a little bit of solace in me… praises and criticisms are part and parcel of all occupations, I guess… and one just needs to forget it and move on…

'MAMA'

have u(all the boys) ever wondered y the british and Americans never kept separate words for mama and kaka…??? And kept a common word uncle???
Well last mth a woman had come for check up with her small kid along her…I out of my liking small kids, asked him whts his name… and the woman told her child “tell mama your name..” that left me thinking afterwards why was I made a ‘mama’??? And during the after thought I realized all females did the same… all told their kids “say hi to mama”, “tell mama ur name”… I mean it was an indirect indication that they considered me their brother or rather told me indirectly to consider them as my sister… but y??? was there anything on my face that revealed that I was probably going to make a pass at them??? But then because of this I started to hear conversations between others and realized that this is a common ‘weapon-in-disguise’ used by all females against all men apart from their husbands… I didn’t bother to go to check wether is worked or not… but surely the English people didn’t take chances and didn’t invent separate words for ‘uncle’… J

real backward classes...

Sunday I had gone for a camp at an orphanage. The NGO involved had adopted a village for health check up… since I too keep camps occasionally I was aware of the ppl involved and thought this might just be one of the publicity gaining camps.. but when I saw the village people I was shocked to c the state of nutrition in them, their poverty… there were all grades of malnutrition in them… all had some or the other skin diseases… would mention few cases here… one man’s wife died a day before and he was going to attend a wedding the next day as he would get to eat!!!! The camp was at 4 pm and almost half of the kids hadn’t eaten till that time… a man had an infection in one eye and the infection progressed till he lost the whole eye and the treatment taken – covering of that eye with a handkerchief… the pain was borne… there were 5 leprosy cases among 30 kids…such a high ratio… one ‘book picture’ case of leprosy, an orphan of 14 yrs age was working for a salary of Rs 200 per month… and there was ‘real hard work’ involved…
these are the real ‘backward people’ and these need to be taken care of… the good thing was that the NGO was going to follow up them around twice a month… I on my part volunteered to take care of their eyes… and also volunteered to operate ppl who had cataracts free of cost... these are people who need care.. and I felt all camps I had taken till date were so useless as I had been attending to people who compared to these adivasis were sooooo rich…. Real poverty lies in these adivasi villages…
Through this blog I appeal to people who can and wish to sponsor cataract operations. They can contact me and ‘even attend’ the surgeries of the people they have sponsored. We are working out the minimum cost but it definitely won’t be more than a 1000 rupees for one surgery. So please if possible visit Ambarnath so that I can show you these adivasi villages. After you see their plight with your own eyes I know you will have tears in your ‘heart’… and ya, ur donations wont have any tax, 80c or any other benefit , but then I assure you, you will leave with millions and billions and trillions of good wishes from these people… and a satisfied mind and heart…

am i growing old??

What are the signs of senility…. Well if u ask a college goer he would probably say, when you like gazals or slow songs instead of hard rock n heavy metal… whn u like watching tv at a volume of 12 instead of atleast 25…and whn the tv programmes happen to be news and not mtv…. whn you call resting as time pass instead of playing video games or watching a movie…
Nowadays I wonder if my mind has started aging… I prefer silence or soft noise to loud noise…(except whn my wife is around…cos if she sits silent then the whole world seems to be missing something)… I prefer to smile and let go of any arguments anywhere instead of arguing with that person… I prefer to think before I talk…. I prefer tv news channel over k serials… but ya I luv music and mtv…. I love watching movies having a serious topic…. I love gardening… I love to think about people whom I have no relation whatsoever… I prefer to be satisfied with what I have rather than crave for more….
in short I search or seek ‘peace of mind’….
But then my wife says this is all bullshit…. Her reason…. I still shout meaningless verbals out of the blue many times… I fight with Ria over chocolates… I love cartoons and comics…. I love playing video games and computer games… I don’t give a shit to many home or relative ‘problems’… with Ria around swapna says its difficult to say whos smaller…
Well I would say you should be a kid the whole life…. No stress no tension…. Just PEACE OF MIND…J

morning walk!!!

Ya finally I started my morning walks… its been just 2 days… but the feeling is amazing… the morning fresh air freshens u up like anything… usually I start whn others are completin their walks.. around 7 am…but then the fact tht I actually started it is more commendable… music is the only accompaniment… soothens me up… but ya most important thing I feel is walking alone... makes one give time for self… helps one think about many matters from your perspective… while walking with someone u cant give time for urself as there would be matters of the world, family frnds being discussed…. I would seriously recommend ppl to start walking…n hopefully I don’t stop it soon… after coming back I can also spare time for my new interest.. gardening… with the help of a person I started planting some flowering plants..have quite a few of them now… n the joy of seeing new flowers bloom is also wonderful… I might be putting up the pics of the diff flowers I have now…. But ya because of these new interests my mind is more at peace now… no…don’t think am growing old by saying these things… am ‘gonna be 18’till I die’…

beggars with babies...

U must have come across female beggars with a small crying infant in their hands…. Its such a pathetic sight… n whn u have seen movies like traffic signal or some other similar ones u don’t know wht to do in such cases…. The beggars usually make the child cry by pinching or something similar so that ppl take pity n give them alms… What do u do in such cases??? do u get angry on the beggar n shoo them away… or do u feel for the child and give her some money…. U can create a problem in both way… by giving them money u probably make them feel successful so that they go to some more ppl n make the babies cry for the same… or by shooing away u probably make them think that the crying of the baby aint good enough n they do something more severe to make the child cry louder… I always feel this dilemma… but I feel the best way to stop this is to stop giving them money n letting them know tht its only because she has the child tht shes not getting alms… some babies will suffer but the future babies would be spared once they come to know tht babies don’t work!!

My first stint as a chief guest...

This Saturday I had the honor of attending a students gathering as a chief guest… as soon as I was invited I became nervous of the worst part of being a chief guest… ‘saying 2 words’(don shabd in Marathi to be interpreted as speech in English)… am very bad at oration esp with so many ppl listenin… my last 3 experiences were very bad as I was made to speak in a function at the last moment and had to speak in Marathi… God knows wht I said…all tata.. papa… but this time I was determined to go prepared… n I had thought of a couple of lines to say… initially I had to distribute some prizes along with some other guests… then there some other things… n then came the final part… my turn was after 2 ppl… the main organizer came n asked me if I was ready… suddenly the whole world around me was blank n all I could think of was the ‘2 words’… n whn my turn was to come the organizer suddenly took up the mike n started sayin the final part… I was stunned…. I thought maybe they had cancelled my speech to prevent embarrassment (as the organizer had heard my previous speech)…to be frank If I was in the organizers place I wouldn’t have invited me after hearin the previous speech… I was so heart broke… had prepared this ‘2 words’ for 2 days…. N I felt bad… I wanted to go there n speak… n suddenly after the organizers speech I was asked to say a few words n end the gathering… actually the organizer had thought maybe had come unprepared n so he gave me some time to think of something… so nice of him… n then I went… couple of my close relatives were sitting in front laughing n ready to ‘enjoy’ my speech… I tried to be as normal as possible n hoped not to give away the impression that I had ratofied the speech… wht I said even I don’t remember but I think I said the words correctly…just as I had thought of… in 2 minutes… but as I gave the speech I couldn’t hear anything… I couldn’t look at any one person… it was as if I was lookin blankly somewhere…. N whn I said my final words “thank you” I heard the roar of claps… n I smiled…. I was back in the real world… i thought I had spoken well… I asked some people n they said it was good.. short n sweet… tht was ncie to hear esp after my previous failure… I have now asked them to give me a cd afterwards… I want to hear myself speak… n maybe if it turns out to be good ill upload the same… it was a grt evening … n ya I think my first stint as the chief guest was successful… only thing is I need to overcome stage fear…. N keep some speeches ready in advance… cos u never know whn u might be asked to say ‘2 words’….

when u r God to someone...

Yesterday I had a 4 yr child coming to me with a stick injury resulting in corneal(black portion of the eye) tear with bleeding in the eye… the result can be varied in such cases, from complete recovery to loss of eye due to infection… also the patient was poor… so I advised the patient to go to KEM where I could arrange everything and the whole sugery would cost around 500-600 rupees whereas in private the expenses would go to nearly 5000 as it would require general anesthesia… but the relative of the patient was hell bent upon me doing the surgery as she had full faith in me… her words “nahi sir 2 paisa jyada lage toh bhi thik lekin aap ke haath se hua toh humko koi tension nahi” still linger in my mind… I tried best to explain her tht results vary n instead of spending so much she should go to KEM but to no avail… again she said to the mother of the child “yeh doctor yahan ke sabse acche hai… inhone operation kiya toh accha hi hoga”… the faith she put in me left me spell bound… infact put me more under pressure to perform my best… even after operating that child I felt that I may not have been able to perform to match her expectations… the fact that I am HUMAN and the patient put me in God’s seat troubled me a lot… today am goin to open the childs eye pad after finishing this blog… n am very very nervous…
It feels very good to know that the patient trusts you but it is dangerous when they start considering you God… infact in both my hospitals I have written a note outside my opd… ‘the person sitting inside is HUMAN n not GOD’…

wht do u live for???

At times while driving I come across people on streets… recently 2 types of people intrigued me… one type was people who lived lying on streets unattended for mths n yrs together... getting to eat maybe once in couple of days… and the second type was people who worked n worked for say 50 rupees a day and also had a family to look after… wht was the purpose of such people in life??? I got the answer for the second type as soon as I reached home n saw my daughter standing at the door…. It doesn’t matter how much one has to slog the whole day, if at the end of d day we see a smile on our childrens face all is forgotten… but then the first type… they die a slow n prolonged death of hunger, diseases, etc. some say it’s their sins of previous life… but then y does one has to suffer for things done in previous life??? Isn’t it logical that a person pays for his/her sins in the same life???... maybe ill find the answer to this n many other such questions someday…

Male child....

Today had been to a lunch to a frnds place… his wife is pregnant n is following up for antenatal care with swapna… in between talks my frnds mom asked swapna indirectly wether she knew about the sex of the child…. She was ‘u must have seen in the sonography report..’ the girl was pregnant for the first time n her mom-in-law wanted to know the sex of the child…indirectly she wanted to know wether it was a male child…!!! Even in the so-called modern society the ‘male child’ wish still prevails… even my nani once said ‘aata next mulga pahije’… no it wasn’t for a boy n a girl family but it was the ‘male child’ factor into play here… our neighbor had a girl after 14 yrs of marriage n then she became pregnant again n in third mth the father wanted to know the sex of the child… we asked him wether he would terminate the pregnancy if it was a girl child??? He was ‘no no…aise hi puch raha hun’… he got a nice lecture frm us… looking at children around me I have come to the conclusion that boys are never that attached to their parents… the love and emotions that a girl has for her parents cannot be matched for by a boy… girls always remain attached to their parents… especially they are always daddy’s girl… maybe am biased here because of that…J… but in this age… I personally feel forget about carrying forward your generation but rather enjoy the oldage with ur children n I believe that a daughter would be there for you more than your son….

arranging a marraige...

Recently we had the opportunity of arranging a meet betn prospective bride(my cousin) n groom… n considering both me n swapna don’t know to arrange one my uncles n aunts had also come up to help… a girl n a guy sittin in betn 10 people n we expect them to talk n ask each other questions related to ‘knowin each other better’… the guy startin shootin questions as if he had a nice long experience in this… which made me doubt wether the guy is choosy or the previous girls rejected him due to some problem… my cousin was the other way round…. May be someone should have taken some classes of Q n A’s for her… but since it was her first time… forgiven… how can 2 ppl know each other in just a meet… I mean knowing myself if I had gone for an arranged marriage the girl would have ran away after comin to know me better…mayb even put a complaint on me for havin a dual personality…… one always presents his/her better side in such cases… aren’t the following questions more important… wht r ur bad habits??? How many affairs u had before??? Do u have any diseases??? Whts ur HIV status??? Are you an MCB or a member of nari mukti sanghatna??? Common if ppl had starting answering such questions truthfully then maybe half of the weddings wouldn’t have taken place… maybe that’s y they don’t ask… n then the best or should I say worst part…waitin for the guy to know his opinion…. Here I was very pissed with my uncles n aunts… they without asking my cousin wether she liked the guy or not stated… ‘lets hope the guy gives a positive report tomm…!!!’ n the moron guy could have just said yes or no… but the moro he was, sent his refusal with an excuse… ‘the girls teeth don’t show up whn she smiles…does she have a prob with her teeth???’ n then we had to pacify my cousin for half an hour after she burst into tears in a K serial fashion….
p.s – expect a short story soon on this topic soon from me….