Musings Own Thoughts

 Today, I am going to write about the AYUSH resident doctors I have come across and their stories of courage. As MBBS doctors and creatures of privilege we fail to recognize and remember the struggle to get admission to medical college. The difference between getting the coveted prize and missing it can be fraction of a mark. Add to this the reservation conundrum, the disability quota and the hacking of NEET. So in my humble opinion the ones who miss out think that they can study medicine through other branches like Homeopathy, Ayurvedic Medicine, Unani, Yoga and Naturopathy to become doctors. So with the basic medical education in place it is quite easy to obtain knowledge of allopathic medicines of common use and prescribe the same. While technically this is wrong and this practice is condemned as cross pathy I have mixed views about the same.  In India, the health policy recognizes the shortage of trained doctors in India and have attempted to create a loose legal framework...

Definition of health as a right is enshrined in the constitution of the World Health Organization which has 194 countries as members. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. Having established this right this blog is talking about two things, free of cost basic healthcare which makes this a complex topic.  The fundamental conflict in this equation is that of the Forms of government (capitalistic free market vs socialist welfare state) The difference between public and private goods.  Cross subsidizing of healthcare in terms of the healthy large number bearing the cost of treatment of the unhealthy smaller number by the tool of insurance.  Preventive vs Curative medicine.  Incentives of the s...

 Time is a healer and even as we feel that the associations of the moment are very important and vital, it is indeed surprising how memories fade with time. Yet all religious traditions have a fascination bordering on obsession to preserve the memory of past associations especially the immediate family who have left us. We all imagine that these persons are existing in some other world in the nearly same state as we imagine them to be. The physical form, the emotional tug and their inbuilt presence in me as a person makes this a fertile ground for imagination. As I personally reach an age of 64, I am increasingly conscious of old age and the memories of much of my life are rewinding like an old movie. As we go through this week before the Parsi new year prayers are on in the fire temples. The sentiment and faith rooted in belief that our ancestors somehow come back to visit us on earth in this week and we need to use some rituals and prayers which can be recited only by part time p...

 Recently I heard a Hindi podcast called Pulliyabaazi hosted by public policy experts from Takshashila Institute of Public Policy Pranay Kothasthane, Saurabh and Khyati. A framework of discussing issues was taken up to decide which ones were overrated or underrated in terms of importance and which ones were too complicated to slot into either of the above two categories. There are so many points of debate and the argumentative Indian revels in these debates with often extreme views? Sometimes there is a over hype to these questions and at other times there is a feeling that issues which are important are underrated. And sometimes they are too complicated to be categorized.  I will try and make this blog interactive and long and take few words or topics and try and give my opinion on whether the issue at hand is overrated by which I mean we give it more importance than it warrants or it is underrated in that it is not getting the importance it deserves or finally since both sid...