Stinking ‘God’s own country’

I used to take pride in being a Keralite. We were known for our cleanliness. During our  travel from Lucknow to Kerala, when the train passed through my home state in the early morning, I used to show proudly to my husband the scene of ladies brooming the front yard of houses. It was the habit of many people to clean their houses, inside and outside, take bath and then enter the kitchen.

A normal scene in Kerala tody is uncollected garbage- pileup and stinking waste across both sides of national highways. Its rivers, tiny water canals and all other natural beauty, foundation of its growing tourism industry are getting affected as lack of waste management system in the State is causing havoc to normal public life.  

The common man brings the house hold waste and dumps it on road side. The corporation workers also dump waste on the road side and set fire to it. There are all sorts of things in the waste, including plastic, so the fumes are dangerous, affecting children more than the adults.

It is sad to see that there is a lack of proper Waste Management system in place in a state with 100% literacy. In several places locals are up in arm against prevalent practice of dumping and landfill Contractors who transport garbage to dump in the interior village dumping sites or near forests or water bodies often face severe resistance from locals and environmental activists.

Unofficial estimates indicate that Kerala generates 6000 ton of waste every day. However, local issues and sentiments have prevented even the collection of solid waste. The end result is that the stunning Kerala landscape has been converted into a stinking, garbage strewn one.

Ref:

http://www.universalecoservices.com/wastemanagement_in_kerala.cfm

Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxvZX2JHDos

Is dishonesty our National character?

The road we go through daily was so full of potholes. After months, one day we saw a road roller, and we thought that repair was imminent. But they were just patched up with small stones and sand. It is anybody’s guess how long it is going to last, with our rainy season just starting, which will last for four more months!

All the street lamps won’t be lit, and to the complaints, the answer is ‘No money”. When there are discussions on such matters, always the final fault comes to the politicians. Yesterday I heard on the TV news that ‘Situations will improve only when honest people come into politics’.

That set my mind into a thinking groove. It was searching for honest people around, from the lower class to the upper class. It is so difficult to get workers here, because they can have an ok life with the availability of Rs.1/kg rice. The families manage to have multiple ration cards (that brings in middle class citizens taking bribe to issue multiple ration cards). So they have enough rice to eat and also, sell it back at higher rate and earn some money.

There are middle aged class IV employees in private institutions, who manage to get old age pension from the government, by giving wrong age certificates (again, who issues the certificate? What’s in it for him?)

Many people don’t think twice before stealing flowers and curry leaves from other houses. More daring ones will come with gunny bags, jump inside the house compound when nobody is there in the house and fill these bags with mangoes plucked from the tree in the back yard, leaving nothing for the house holder, and they are  proud of their achievement!

The informer (to the robbers) for the theft in a house was a worker from a mutt ( religious organization)! And today I see a news item, “The woman who has made the allegations started to work as a cook there and is originally from Hubli. After lunch the Godman asked her to keep a plate in his room and when she entered he allegedly locked the room and molested her. Malamaruthi police have registered a cased under 376IPC.The godman is originally from Bagalkot.” (http://allaboutbelgaum.com/news/godman-arrested-alleged-rape-cook/)

The cream of society, the doctors who want their kids to become doctors (irrespective of their capability) would go to any length of dishonesty (which are unthinkable) to achieve their objective. And the widely prevalent dishonesty of many doctors in the approach to treating patients is an open secret.

Majority of these people who blame the politicians for dishonestly taking personal advantages, would do exactly the same thing (or even more?) if they are in the same position. So what is our future? I can’t think of any other way than to wait till the end of Kaliyuga when a God incarnate will come to eradicate the evil!

Disappearing skill of clinical diagnosis

We had the subject of general medicine and surgery in the third year of BDS. To train us to do the clinical diagnosis for the exam, we had some good teachers. When any of us fell sick, they would diagnose by clinical examination, give appropriate medicine and that was it! The health was restored.

In that period of time, one day my aunt who stayed next door, frantically called me home. Her daughter, about 4 years old, was having deep purplish color inside her oral cavity. My cousin who was doing MBBS, was already there, checking her with his stethoscope. I looked at the girl, she seemed to be completely normal, the breathing rate, pulse and all. I called her aside and asked,’ Tell me, where is the thing that you put in your mouth?’  She took me to the place where potassium permanganate was kept!

When I joined my job and started working, I developed a pain in the neck and shoulder region. The pain was a bit more and we went for consultation. He diagnosed some problem in the neck area and told to go to the physiotherapy department to get traction done daily for a number of days, apart from taking some tablets. Well, I am not a lover of tablets, but went for traction for a few days. Then I got the intuition that something was not right. I didn’t want to continue with the traction. I started thinking deeply what must have gone wrong.

While doing post graduation, my friends had talked me into buying a very high heeled chappal, and I was continuing to use it.  I thought of discontinuing its use and see the result. Well, that was it! Within a week, I was totally free from the pain.

I had a maid whose mother used to fall sick often. She would be admitted to the hospital for saline infusion, for at least two days. Now I have another maid, who absented one day and told that her mother was having abdominal pain. She took some pain killers herself, the pain got worsened. So they took her to the doctor.

I was experienced now, so asked her, ’They admitted her for saline infusion?’

‘Yes,’ she answered with a look of admiration.

I was surprised that her mother took pain killers. I asked her, ’Don’t you people have any home remedies (gharelu davai)?’

‘No’, she told with an expression, ’What are you talking about?’

‘The bill came to Rs. 7000. The doctor told that there may be problem with the heart also, it is very necessary to get a check up done (of course another fat bill).All of us are worried and are thinking about it.’

On further questioning her I came to know that her mother had a hernia operation last year. The day prior to getting pain she had carried big vessels of water to store in the house. Mostly the pain must have started due to the strain and then her self medication must have created acidity or something like that.

From our friend circle and others, we come to know that doctors who can make a correct clinical diagnosis are very rare now. They will write for investigations and even repeat investigations again and again! Doctors are proving to be ‘karmic police of the kaliyuga’ (my daughter’s words). The sins are increasing and doctors are here to mete out punishment by misdiagnosis, draining people of their money by repeated investigations, unnecessary hospitalization and surgeries.

To one of my colleagues’ mother, immediate heart surgery was advised, with a warning that she might not last even for 3 months without the surgery. The lady was very courageous and decided, ‘ I have spent a life time and had a good life. I am ready to die any time now.’ She didn't get the surgery done and was alive even three years afterwards. I lost contact with her after that.

I have reliable information from a hospital that there is standing instruction to the ICU unit that any patients that came with chest or abdominal pain have to be kept in the ICU for at least one week. The cost of doing an MBBS course is almost one crore now. If they do post graduation also, spending a fortune, they are in a hurry to make money after starting the practice. Then cuts from the drug companies and pathology labs are very lucrative. Even some dentists are routinely writing tonics for every patient for their cuts from the drug company. Is there any comparison to the earning if one does correct clinical diagnosis and cure the patients with minimum medicines?