Musings Own Thoughts

 It is hard to write about this subject in a detached manner. Medical ethics is based on the premise that doctors who provide healthcare solutions are actually dealing with human life. The premise that this is sacred gift and the person who seeks help to alleviate disease and suffering cannot be unethical in doing wrong to any fellow human being. The fundamental issue here is that historically hospitals came from places of religion and so even to this day many religious trusts consider running hospitals a sacred duty. Social organizations too think that running hospitals and providing treatment free or at a low cost is an act of charity and social welfare. The changes in this started occurring when multiple stakeholders came in the picture and the dynamics of  medical care became more complex.  Many of my blogs in the past have touched on this subject so I will not allude to most of them. I am trying to adopt the framework of the incentives of state or sarkar, markets or ...

 A long life innings came to a relatively peaceful end on August 16, 2024 at the age of 98. Sadly, her last few months and years were painful as  dementia had set in. However, my sister her daughter and caregivers looked after her very well and facilitated a dignified end to her mortal life. The following verses from the Gita make me come to terms with the fact that physically she is no more. The real Self of my mother is alive and eternal and will never cease to exist. As I reflect on her long life I have the difficult task of putting in a few words a lifetime of experiences and also try and bring out the essence of her personality.  https://www.bmcm.org/inspiration/passages/what-real-never-ceases/                 What is real never ceases to be. The unreal never is. The sages Who realize the Self know the secret Of what is and what is not. Even as we cast off worn-out garments And put on new ones, so casts off the Self A worn-out ...

 Dr. Parvez Hakim is no more and quietly left this world on August 9, 2024. It may be a coincidence but at around 10pm on the same day I was about to write a blog on medical ethics.  I was composing my thoughts on the content and the part that role models play in shaping medical ethics came as a key part of my experience. The name of Dr. Hakim came as one of the most important mentors I had in shaping my medical values and ethics.  Coming to Dr Hakim the person, teacher and the surgeon he can be described as gentlest of gentlemen. A man of few words but mind you he never lacked in expression. I can only say that his few words were extremely effective and conveyed perfectly what needed to be spoken. He was witty and had a ready repartee at all times. As a teacher we needed to learn from him and he taught by example. He was a textbook surgeon and was always unhurried and perfect, he would achieve perfect hemostasis (control of bleeding) after every step. We residents used t...

  Knowledge is a noun and knowing is a verb. The act of acquiring knowledge through study, association, experience and practice is called knowing. The next question is Knowing what? The answer is knowing a subject which one chooses.The subjects chosen relate to the secular field and the spiritual field. Pursuing knowledge which is secular relates to utilitarian knowledge which is conventionally acquired through education which in general term trains individuals to follow the mundane purpose of life.  In the Universe at least as humans we believe that we are at the top of creation as we are blessed with an evolved apparatus of body, mind and with our intelligence we are able to conquer nature and live a comfortable life. We also have the power to discriminate between right and wrong through the intellect which can if exercised raise man to sublime heights. While this is an extremely comfortable thought, I feel that we can only perceive what our consciousness allows us to percei...

The question posed is concerning my experience is about nature or nurture. When we see an effective speaker who is a great communicator, the first reaction is of admiration and a lurking envy. The fear of facing an audience and speaking on the stage has been my problem since school days. Despite, being from a convent school with a good command over the English language, I have never volunteered to speak on a stage and if at all I was made to act on stage in school plays, a peripheral role with a few monosyllabic dialogues was the best I managed and even there I remember my play director noticing how I stiffened my shoulders while speaking. This could not go on forever and I had to overcome this flaw as I progressed in life.  While I never formally took training in public speaking, I had aspirations of leadership and once despite stage fright I stood for an election in school against a articulate speaker. On the occasion I spoke like a boy speaking by heart in an elocution competiti...

  This is a debate which exists since pre independent India and continues to this day. There is a paradoxical feeling of clarity and confusion on this subject. Still I do not really feel that I need to have all the answers to this question as Nobel Laureates and economists are yet to settle these issues among themselves.  A colonised nation which before British rule was a cradle of civilization and trade had been reduced to a poor agrarian economy with small villages. Poverty, small land holdings and a caste ridden society with exploitation by whimsical kings and who in turn were exploited by the British colonizers made India a country which needed to quickly get its act together and survive as a country. The fight against the colonizers was marked by almost a hundred years of struggle. The first war of independence was notionally led by many rulers notionally under the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zaffer. This war unfortunately failed and led to a consolidation of the Bri...

  All religions talk of the mind as the enemy and the friend. The most important problem facing human beings is the delusion and ignorance of the Reality of the world as we see it. Scientifically, it has been said that we are physical creatures which have organs of action and perception. The beauty of nature is the phenomenon of creation where a single cell is the beginning of life form. This life form for a human being is complex and species specific. Now, this gives each species some common and some unique features which are both inherited and acquired.  Broadly on a physical plane we are as much flesh and blood as animals are and even among these we are part of the group known as mammals. The physical body made of the gross anatomical structures is given life by physiological functions which in turn is governed by the mind. This mind is in a matter of knowing the filter which sends signals to the intellect which using its power of discrimination decides what it needs to do ...