Kindness is non-negotiable

Practice kindness to the pith. Your present state is an outcome of your past deeds and your future would be shaped by what you indulge in today. All said and done, many a times we get carried away by a flicker of sentiment and put our thinking neurons to hibernation; an outburst of anger, hatred or revenge follows and we, inadvertently, become the destructors of our destinies. The paroxysms of anger have always resulted in bad blood; one must take a pause and think about the situation from an altogether different perspective.

Human life is a constant struggle for achieving the state of nothingness; a state where you become empty inside as you contain everything. Quite an oxymoron, but that is the truth of life; when you seek refuge in worldly emotions, you keep on getting jolts, one after another. When you stop reacting to distracting stimulus and invest in true emotions, such as love, hope and kindness, you start experiencing as if the nature is breathing in tandem with you. Life is a bouquet of wild roses and life is an assortment of poisonous thorns; the perception of life depends on your perspective and thought process.

Kindness is the non-negotiable law of nature. Most of the awe-inspiring and heaven-sent experiences happen when you display abundance of kindness. To forgive is kindness; to sacrifice is kindness; the beatific display of abundant care is kindness; non-violence is kindness; respecting others’ mental spheres is kindness; to lessen others’ burdens is kindness. Practicing kindness comes as an addiction to those who derive the psychic pleasures out of it; when you start contributing to Mother Nature’s equilibrium of energies by practicing kindness, you truly shine out as the most resplendent diamond.

Memoirs of early years

I remember an incidence when I had just started my hospital. There came a patient, a rather young male who had just entered in his thirties, after being suffered multiple burn injuries by getting inflicted with high tension wires. At the time of his admission, the likelihood of his survival was pretty miserable in view of clinical state. He had sustained about 60% burns that contained both superficial and deep ones. The patient stayed at my hospital for about 6 weeks and emerged out a winner. I could not gather a single moment when I saw him getting hopeless or dull; he had this verve of life – a superfluous one. At the time of discharge, his total hospital bill was about Rs 94,000. Though we have this rule of getting payments deposited as the expenditures soar high, we don’t follow this rule with finicky attire. This is one rule that has been kept flexible; especially for the poor patients, I have instructed my staff to practice more compassion than what is the usual norm. This patient had deposited Rs 24,000 in his hospital’s account and was left with no more money. He explained this to me and said he is not in a position to return me the balance amount. 

I was curious to know why he did not opt to get his treatment done at some of the government hospital where expenses would have been far less and they even have separate burn care units with specialists 24X7. He responded after a long silence with lachrymose eyes and a heavy heart. What he said was enough to bolster my amour proper to a significant extent. He said ,” Sir, I am really sorry for not being able to pay you back for the services that you provided me when I needed them most. The moment you first attended me, I knew I was in exceptionally safe and capable hands. Had I not been in a penny-pinching state, I would have merrily given you the balance sum, and I promise to return it back to you in the years to come. What you have done to me is angelic and now I believe my mother’s words that used to stress over the fact that one comes across angels and demons in flesh and blood. I am yet to see a person as self-sacrificing as you.”

With years of social experience it does not take me a long time to decipher what’s going on in a person’s mind as he speaks a certain sentence. I was sure that this person stayed at my hospital in spite of not having any money because he trusted me with his life. I patted him on his back and told him to attend the follow up sessions on time. The moment he was about to leave my consultation room, I whispered softly that I don’t need the balance amount from him. Even before I could have finished my statement, he was brought in to tears. He cried for a long time and I consoled him. That is what I say a seraphic relationship. Beyond the description of ordinary words; the more I see life, the more I want to indulge in such selfless relationships where you only spread hope, love and compassion. Had I not been a doctor, I would certainly have not been able to experience the tranquility that peeps in my life from such sacrosanct experiences.

20 things you can achieve in 10 minutes

1. Burn 200 calories.
2. Take a small nap.
3. Plan a surprise party for your colleague.
4. Get a family photograph clicked.
5. Get involved with a Child Relief NGO.
6. Open up the window and breathe some fresh air.
7. Read the editorial page of your favorite newspaper.
8. Read the preface of a book and plan the reading sessions for the week ahead.
9. Call your parents.
10. Get a reality check with your child’s progress in his academics.
11. Prepare fruit salad.
12. Wipe out someone’s tears.
13. Organize your drawer and clean your keyboard.
14. Make a list of ‘to-do’ activities for the month.
15. Write an email to your future spouse.
16. Hum a nostalgic tune.
17. Bask in the glory of silence.
18. Read the reviews of a newly released book / film.
19. Change the passwords of your social media identities.
20. Write a blog post.

5 self help tactics for depression

Pangs of depression hold the abhorrent capacity to incapacitate a person. In today’s life, we have a lot of people suffering with underlying depression in view of fast changing values, expectations and poor support system. Depending on the extent and severity of underlying depression, you should seek medical help; depression help tactics are a grand way to start the healing process.

Setting goals are a great way to build confidence. When you set a goal for you, you instill self belief in your dejected soul and that, precisely, acts as a panacea in replenishing your positive hormones.

Work out in improving your body language and physical posture. Practice more often to stand straight, smile lavishly, hold your head high and maintain eye contacts. Do it in front of the mirror and commit to memory a time you felt great; this would not just wipe the depression to some extent, but would also help you regaining the lost self-righteousness.

Exercising is an imperative step in releasing gush of positive hormones in your body. This is no hidden truth that exercise makes you feel better, and you must incorporate exercising in your daily routine. It would be great if you can arrange someone to accompany you so that you remain motivated.

Don’t get burdened with a pile of must-to-do activities. Lighten down your workload and split your tasks into smaller portions. Don’t leave a prominent window for unnecessary procrastination; this allows you to complete your projects in a timely manner and desiccate the pulp of problem to an extent.

Surround yourself with happy, supportive folks. Spend time with people who understand you and participate in activities that you revel in such as checking out a new dress, going out for a meal, seeing a movie or visiting some friends.

Determining the causes of your depression is a first-rate first step towards determining the best course of action. In some cases depression suddenly appear in one’s life without an easily discernible root cause; if this is the case, it would be best to see a doctor while continuing these self-help measures.

Lift the pressure-lid off our kids

Every child is born with his quota of happiness; some are easily ecstatic, and some are tough to please. Some children are fussier and some children are more perceptive. Whether your child has a high level of likely happiness or a low down level, he must learn to accept failures. Learning to accept failures would enhance their creative spectrum and when we impulsively protect our children from failure, we dispossess them from learning skills.

Raising children is about inculcating traits, shaping thought process and instilling moral values. It would be rather too direct and cumbersome to just focus about fixing the erratic sides of their behaviors. Children, these days, are exposed to a lot of stimulus and judgments; we must take thoughtful steps to gain acceptance from our children. If we would try to impose our thought process over them, we may risk losing their faith. Teaching children how to burgeon should commence with focusing on their strengths, not their Achilles' heels.

Much of the education is not taught; it is rather attained by own experiences. By teaching you child how to take a failure, you are actually making him learn about the importance of optimism. A child must be involved in a thought process where life is not counted by achievements or setbacks; it is important for a child to learn in a guilt free manner.

By following the dictums of Positive psychology, the child’s strengths must be treated genuinely by the parents. It must be kept in mind to refrain from blunt approaches; a methodical assessment and gradual approach to impart the right stimulus would be the right thing to do. You must not encourage answering in ‘yes’ or ‘no’; when you would attempt to explain things to your child, you would help him to sharpen his thinking neurons, which, in turn, would help him soar the intellectual heights.

10 rules of Yoga Exercises

1. Ideally, Yoga exercises should be done empty stomach or at least 4-6 hours after taking meals.
2. It’s best to perform Yoga exercises during the dawn.
3. Of course, there are a lot of audio-visual resources available these days to help you learn the nuances of Yoga, it would be best to get training from an instructor.
4. Don’t get exposed to strong, direct winds while performing Yoga exercises.
5. Don’t attempt to cross your physical limits in a spree of over enthusiasm. Make realistic goals and aim to increase your range of movements and flexibility by and by.
6. Ensure to alleviate the stiffness of your body before setting to start the Yoga session for the day.
7. Ideally, you must never get tired while performing Yoga exercises; however, if you feel tired, take rest before proceeding to the next set. Ask your instructor about your technique and duration as well so that you don’t get fatigues frequently.
8. Yoga exercises are helpful when breathing patterns are manipulated in accordance. If you suffer from any illnesses, or belong to elderly age group, seek your doctor’s opinion before setting your feet to become a Yoga geek.
9. Don’t allow the kids to do tough Yoga exercises as some of them can interfere with their normal growth patterns.
10. Don’t eat anything till about 30 minutes after you are done with the day’s Yoga exercises.

Who is not in love with rains?

The delight-amplifying mechanism of Mother Nature induces clouds to pour down heavily in response to the roasting heat caused by the summers. Mystic hues caused by a riot of raindrops; nostalgic aroma of wet earth; water-logged parks with mud-smeared kids; sinking and floating pool of paper boats; window panes getting an eternal caressing from streams of showers; that feel of riotous water trickling down your hair; those facial gestures of a long-held prayer being answered; getting a kick in shearing a water-filled mud hole by speeding our vehicle over it; the mass-hugs and the abundant giggles; the momentary evanescence of worldly worries!!

Rains fulfill a missed connection between us and Mother Nature. I remember those spells of joyous feet-thumping in rain waters, those sprees of singing aloud with a bunch of friends while it rained as if there is no tomorrow. On the outer side, it may seem that rains convolute the orderly arrangements; however, in real, rains serve to make the things attain some patterns, and regain lost sheen. Rains join sky and earth, which otherwise never touch each other. With the interconnectedness of all the elements of Mother Nature, the world seems more fluid than ever when it rains. Oh I have been bitten so badly by the bug of rains! When would it rain in Delhi?

10 things to do before being hospitalized

No one likes to get admitted to the hospital; not even the most fire-eating kind of red-blooded geeks. But then let’s face the music of reality; most of us get admitted to the hospitals for one or the other bodily issues that has gone wrong. If you are heading to get admitted at a hospital for some elective procedure or treatment, it would help you a lot if you take a note of the below mentioned facts;

1. Make sure everyone in the family is clear of their roles.
2. Ensure to have a clear idea of expected financial obligations beforehand so that you arrange the entire amount well in time.
3. Act strong; the best clinical results are obtained when the patient has a tenacious mind and positive outlook.
4. Don’t leave any pile of works that would bother you while you are being headed to the operation theatre. Apply for sick leave well in advance and engage your colleagues to look after your work in your absence.
5. Know your rights and responsibilities as a patient. Times have changed and hospital policies have seen a quantum jump from those being practiced may be few years back.
6. Know about the physical limitations that you would be carrying home after your discharge from the hospital. This way you can plan for necessary arrangements in your house beforehand, saving yourself from a lot of worries.
7. Request your family members and friends to stick to the visiting time slot of the hospital for meeting you.
8. Ensure to circumspect every little thing related with your present illnesses. In case you think you have missed out telling a point to your doctor, do so at the first opportunity.
9. Don’t keep any negative thoughts. Avoid apprehensions and anxieties. Sleep well the night before.
10. Learn to find humor in every little thing and step out with a radiant confidence to regain health.

Experience 'Nothingness'

Most of us don’t feel in sync with the idea of sitting softly with a bare mind. For most of us the idea of evacuating our minds with any thought seems frightening, and seemingly impossible. If fact, this idea is often a blockade to any attempts to meditate or try exercises that advocate mindfulness. We are so absorbed in our own nests that attempts to see the world beyond it don’t really get our complete conscience working for it.

What often happens when you embark on to focus your thoughts, say on your breathing pattern or on a specific, and imaginary, point of light, is that you discover you are over and over again distracted and running off with stampeding thoughts. This is not something out of the world; it happens during the initial phases of our mind’s conditioning to know beyond what lays ahead our eyes. Distraction, in such settings, is not something that should deter you; distraction is the rule of the thumb which just signifies that you have stepped rightly on the voyage ahead. No one discovered God Particle without just like that.

The process of attempting to focus awareness and realizing that you are barking up wrong tree is priceless. At first this may seem a simple eye-opener, but progressively realizing that your thoughts do not denote your eternal self can be liberating. When you discover that thoughts navigate in a ceaseless flow, you can make choices about how you relate to these thoughts.  It would, solely, depend on you to choose the thoughts which you consider to be allies in your quest to self-realization. Which thoughts will you let pass by in a blink?  Which thoughts do you want to maneuver? Which thoughts are just fillers? Which thoughts carry keys to the bigger expeditions?

Mindfulness is not about suppressing your thoughts; its about holding a command over what enters your mind and what remains there. Make every moment a saga of conscientious awareness and you would witness abundant glorious patterns breathing frantically. Life is an awesome experience; you have the tools and you have the time – knowing the technique can bring a sea change in your perception of the inner world and the outer world.

9 qualities of a doctor

Illness is an unwanted acquaintance that knocks during the oddest of hours. It might fall unbeknownst to you, leaving you with little opportunity to think and react sensibly. Behavioral Sciences have established that a person is prone to think irrationally under stressful situations; more the stress, more the deviance from obvious logics. You must practice healthy habits; you must make friends with peaceful, fun loving people; you must not carry mental stress for extended hours; you must not take life in its face value; you must be judicious in selecting your doctor.

1. Your doctor must be experienced enough to be able to track down rarer clinical cases.
2. Your doctor must be an easy to talk to person. Snobbishness is a strict no no.
3. Your doctor’s sense of humor must be intact and flowing. Too much seriousness, in itself, is a disease.
4. Your doctor must not give you a quizzical look when you ask something that medical fraternity considers too obvious a piece of knowledge.
5. Your doctor must respect you, and your family. If you think that your inputs are not been treated properly by your doctor, may be its time to rethink about your choice.
6. Your doctor must never develop cold feet when you want him to discuss your case with one of his superiors/peers.
7. Your doctor must not be too self-worshipping; accepting shortcomings or ignorance would leverage one’s stature in the long run.
8. Your doctor must be radiating with confidence; a meek opinion is not always considered to be the unbiased one.
9. Your doctor must not try to use overtly complex medical jargons while communicating with you; unless of course you, yourself, belong to medical fraternity. 

15 Random questions - What is your take?

1. Suppose you, or for that matter any one else, don’t know your biological age. What do you think your age would be?
2. Do you fear death? If yes, do you fear taking birth also?
3. What do you think you are at best if no one is there to make opinions at?
4. When surrounded by a group of people, do you feel stressed or at ease?
5. Why does it happen that most of the landmark events of your life happen to take place on a specific day of the week?
6. Are you living on an auto-pilot mode or there lies a force which wants YOU to live?
7. Are you aware of your biggest emotional weakness?
8. Have you ever tried thinking what would you get when you mix history with mathematics?
9. Do you ask enough questions or do you settle with the knowledge that you have?
10. Do you get repetitive dreams?
11. When you speak with someone, which is the more important line – the first one or the last one?
12. What do you choose – Time or Money?
13. Is your awareness responsive to others’ intuitions?
14. Do you live your own life or are you a part of a mass-existence?
15. Mass and energy are inter-convertible. Period! What about space? 

Philosophical Kid

I get stirred with the history of modern philosophy. Though, being a doctor, it gives me little time to read anything that doesn’t fall in the realms of medical sciences; still, hand me a book with chronicles of modern philosophy, and I am like a kid who just got his favorite pack of candies. I get gooseflesh reading the works of Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire, Francis Bacon, Herbert Spencer, Benedetto Croce and John Dewey; and the more I am able to know their minds, the more I am in awe of possibilities of human mind.

As being a scientific specialist, I have been conditioned to see what lies in front and then to find out the basis of its existence; the philosophers, however, have a different way of thinking. They tend to make opinions at a grand scale even about the things which most of us would think to be non-existential. Philosophy is the content of life; just like the molecules make a substance, in my opinion, philosophy makes a life. It is sad to see that in today’s world of shrinking relationships and swelling frustration, people still don’t realize the importance of philosophical interventions.

Philosophical sciences are all-encompassing; these would not be restrained by peripheries like most of other sciences are. I believe, if our education systems can empower our kids to get a slice of philosophy from the tender years, in a way that is applicable to them, it can make a great impact on collective growth of nations and people. In life, thought process is the only power we have; and philosophy helps us in aiming the spot right. 

Stellar Power of Rapid Cognition

We must be aware of the stellar power of rapid cognition. Most of us don’t spare a thought over where our first impressions come from. Even before the neural circuit of our conscious brain can attempt a decoding, our subconscious seems to form an opinion. Is the cognition a result of acquired intelligence of our present life, or of many lives that we have lived in the celestial space? It happens so often that an opinion, a thought intrudes our minds and turns out to be true; odds have chances to win but what prompts our minds to give an advantage to underdogs when compared with established winners?

What is the rule of winning? What prompts us to cheer a little known side in a game of soccer when the odds are high that it would, eventually, be knocked out mercilessly within minutes? What makes an underperformer overcome a giant one odd day? Self belief or tryst with destiny, or a combination of both? Is there an equation behind or is that just by chance? ‘Just by chance’ must also be driven by some principles, I am sure; so what takes it to break the myths and achieve something stellar. Premonitions have not been given ample of scientific leverage in our traditional medical sciences; I think a lot about basic functioning of abstract human mind and the more I think the more I get puzzled.

There are a lot of facts for which the reasons are so many to choose from; there are a lot of ironies which need judicious explanations; the dogma of premonitions, and human subconscious, is waiting to be explored. Isn’t it time to get hold of all the ancient scriptures and try to find a scientific basis for the mentioned nuggets of knowledge? 

5 ways to become optimistic

Seek opportunities in doleful moments: Don’t wait for the right moment to fall in your lap like an autumn leaf; you have to go after an opportunity with a club. You might come across a rather doleful period in your life, but that shouldn’t stop you from thinking about the brighter horizons that lie just ahead of it. Fill your faith in an opportunity and fail to bite the dust. Give yourself for a cause and hold eternal belief in it, no matter what way the tides are flowing. Sometimes, it takes a conscious effort to waft away the clouds of uncertainties, in order to pave way for the rainbow of optimism.

Keep yourself surrounded by a horde of enthusiasts: Our mind processes the environmental stimuli with precision, and in a determined way. Chances are that more you keep in the company of dull and pessimistic folks, you would feel burdened without any precise reasons. That’s why it is said that keep yourself surrounded by hope and humor; a simulating music can do wonders to uplift your spirits. Optimism has to be cultivated sometimes, and being in the company of positive people is just acts as a catalyst. Make it a mission to dodge the pessimism in its entirety; if you are not able to find a happy face, create one.

Invest in Love: Love is said to be the most fundamental emotion that Mother Nature had to offer. In every religion, enough has been said about the significance of love; it is an amulet that transforms lives. Reminisce the moments of pure love that happened in your life frequently; train yourself to deal every little problem of your life with something that ‘love’ is a part of. When you become conditioned to ‘love’ unconditionally, you would find yourself soaked in the glory of optimism. Love and optimism are inseparable and grow synergistically.

Be Spiritually guided: I am sure most of us understand that the purpose of life is not just to earn, eat and pass away; it has more meanings to it. If you, even for a minute, tend to take your mind away from all the worldly worries and focus on your own inner self, chances are that you would feel energized and confident. Invest faith in the true meaning of life; you are here to spread the optimism, love, hope and faith, the rest of the things that are important to live a life would follow on their own. One can be experience spiritual rendezvous sitting on the office desk, in the crowded market yard and even in the face of the toughest adversity of one’s life.

Expect a little from people around: Every person has its own set of DNA; every one can not fall straight to your expectations. Realize this fact and save yourself from some unnecessary worries which mount to feeling of exhaustion, hopelessness and dejection. Your purpose is to make your life a joy ride by least interfering, or being least affected with other person’s ways of living. Do your best to transform lives, but don’t carry expectations; for when expectations are marred, negativity can announce its birth. Explore your higher centers of thinking and don’t get affected by criticism, hypocrisy or failures.

Are you devoting some time to yourself?

What do you see when you fix your gaze with your mirror-image? There are more than normal chances that you would observe crowfeet, wrinkles, hyper-pigmentation and sagging skin, especially if you have crossed 30 years of your life! Take out some time to look beyond that; can you imagine you had been one of the cutest toddlers of your extended family. What happened to your facial luminosity? Nothing, it lies all there but the eyes fail to see that. Attempt to see that beautiful person that lies beneath your skin, and feel good after realization. Beauty is not skin deep; it is something beyond the reach of measurable finites.

The struggle for existence is, not altogether, an evil; the important virtue is to know that you are special in the whole world. Make attempts for continuous enlargement for the area of peace and love in your inner self, and then your spiritual vision would show you vivid colors that you are made of. Its all about clear thinking and fixing of priorities. Every person should be respected as an absolute end in himself, and yet, every person must be treated as an essential part of the cosmos. Get a hands-on experience with the subtle depth and omnipresent force of instinct and timeless faith, and that would be the time when you would feel at the maximum effortlessness. You must start your own voyage for long-sought-for and long-despaired-of inner reality and essence of life, which is ecstatically beautiful and ageless. 

The Joy of catching up 'Breaking News'

The glorious morning welcomes you with cloudy sky and clear conscience. Somnolent leaves get stirred with jealous thrusts of mighty winds, and infuse freshness in the broad canvas of life. You get hold of your newspaper with a pregnant poise and open the first leaf in the expectation of some nice stuff that holds some importance to you in your life. Alas, most of the times, the front page is abuzz with diurnal activities of self-worshipping leaders. Sigh! You keep on turning page after page; a nice coverage of the ‘should-be’ pulchritudinous foreign policy; a peep in the personal life of the tinsel town’s most written about kid; the discovery of yet another genomic sequence responsible for obesity or Alzheimer’s disease or Kleptomania; the over decorated coverage of a trivial achievement of a political party; the insider’s version of how far the petrol prices can soar till the mass-anxiety of apocalypse sees a slow death; the fanciful photos of western damsels with over-glorification of their achievements that have little to do with infant mortality rate,  or with avoidable maternal mortality rate of our country.

Expecting a better dose from TV can make you pluck that last bunch of friable hair from your scalp; reporters regurgitate anything to capture eyeballs, little aware of the fact that brain is the higher learning centre and not the eyes. Some channel would show a grotesque, and at times, biased analysis of your celestial existence and birth charts. Some channel would report events that clearly favor a section of political parties; some channel would be telecasting heated debate over 3^rd ball of 5^th over of a league match of IPL; some channel would be infusing wisdom that if you don’t purchase that aluminum wallet, your brain has possibly atrophied beyond permissible limits. Such is the glory of every morning; the saga of breaking news sometimes is powerful enough to disjoint our day before it starts. I submit no complains, as there are takers for every little fictitious news, everywhere. Are you also seeing the numb reporter painstakingly trying to make sense about the high-than-normal possibility of ‘tomato flu’ in your neighborhood?

Don't stop loving; it's the only true emotion.

Love is the pith of the universe; love is the mother of all the pleasures. Love is the only real clout. Love enlightens the darkest of the creeks in convoluted layers of our existential realities. I am sure most of us have experienced love, in its purest form, at one or the other time in our lives. Can you close your eyes and let the gush of those memories fill in your veins again? You would feel touched, elated, at loss of words and abundance of bliss. Love is splendiferous in bearing colossal healing powers. The thought of love is said to indie release of positive hormones from the body’s  reserve; what else proof one would ask for in establishing seraphic nature of love?

Christians believe that to Love God with all your heart, mind, and strength and Love your neighbor as yourself are the two most important things in life.

In Hebrew, love is known to be the central force that drives universe. Ahava is the most commonly used term for both interpersonal love and love between God and God's creations.

In Islam Amongst the 99 names of God (Allah), there is the name Al-Wadud, or "the Loving One," which is found in Surah.

God in Sufism is referred to in three main terms, which are the Lover, Loved, and Beloved, with the last of these terms being often seen in Sufi poetry.

In Hinduism, attaining pure, unconditional and incessant love for Godhead is considered the primordial goal of life.

Its tormenting to see that old age parents are being neglected, and often abused; what happened to the concept of parental love? Are we too busy to reminisce the time when we were toddlers and our parents worked hard to keep our bellies and beds warm? It is indeed extremely sad to see the case of female infanticides; even animals don’t behave such brutally. Justification of honor killing frightens me to death; legislations are not enough to curb the menace of conditions that arise due to loss of love; we must fall in love more often. When love seeps in our thought process, it starts manifesting its metamorphosing abilities, and life becomes beautiful.

My Hospital. My Pride.

I have worked relentlessly to create a place where rich and poor can get the best of the healing worlds without any prejudice. I always had my thoughts about making a world class hospital Euclideanly clear, and that has saved me a lot of laconic obscurity that could have blurred the precision of final picture. My emotions are attached with every brick that was ever laid in the foundation of my hospital, for I did it because I was determined, and possibly destined, to do it. My hospital may not be having the sheen of newly built empires of MNCs foraying in the realms of healthcare, but nevertheless, I put smiles to ailing hearts, and that’s enough for me to hold my head high.

I pray to Almighty in atonement every day for giving me the mind, vision and support to spearhead the fight against illnesses that afflict people irrespective of their socio-economic status. Years of plain living and high thinking have given me an advantage of being able to exercise the power of bringing pleasant changes in people’s lives. I believe my birth, my rearing and education, had all pointed, not towards any other profession but health care sciences. I have always thought that my duty towards my countrymen had special claims upon me, such as could not be urged by other duties of life. I have never repented my inability to catch forty winks more than fifty hours at a stretch multiple times in my practice. Many a dreams develop their own wings and limbs and bring about a change in society; my dream followed the same trajectory and I am proud to have created a hospital where ‘care is a culture’.

'Star' of my hospital

I have learnt some of the biggest lessons in my life by being in the company of selfless people. One such name that has always rekindled hopes, even in the state of uncontrolled inner turbulence, in me is Sister Mercy Mathews. She is, without a second thought ever, matron of Khetarpal Hospital and one of the best persons that stepped in the realms of my life ever. I am yet to see a more disciplined individual than her. She has never turned a minute late for her duties in past 15 years.

Most of my old patients know her, and take pride in the fact of knowing her, for they believe to have been looked after by the most angelic personality ever. Sister Mercy remains imperturbable, and glowing even in the face of prevalent chaos and mounting work load. She, possibly, is alien to the concept of any other vocal tone except to that of utter compassion and care. Many a times, patients’ relatives, in a frenzied state, tend to speak harsh, but that hasn’t came across her way of displaying the most beatific and saintly spirits.

I have seen her fighting some of the callous battles of life alone with undeterred belief in the power of hope and belief; needless to say she has been able to overcome every possible atrocity that crossed her life. I make it a point to appoint the newly joined staff nurses under her supervision so that they may take a slice of life and attempt to reinvent themselves. I have never had a patient complaining directly about her, and the list of patients who genuinely express eloquent words for her selfless nature, compassionate attitude and kind gestures seem to be on a constant uphill. 

The Vogue of 'Doctor bashing'

In past few years, I must have read more than 100 times that a doctor has been beaten up by the public, citing reasons for medical negligence. The policy makers, however, remain in the state of acquired & selective immune state to the pity condition pertaining to security of doctors. Being in the medical profession actively, I have, myself, been in unpleasant states many times; I have been threatened, I have been bullied at, I have been shouted at.

Doctors, in the aftermath of such an incident, kick a strike or raise slogans against authorities, which leads to solutions with little shelf lives. Can a doctor work with free mind when the dangers of being maltreated loom high? Would a parliamentarian agree to consult a doctor for his own treatment minutes after the doctor had been at the receiving end of mass apathy stimulated by a mean rabble-rouser? A doctor spends golden years of his life in the company of volumes of books to get well equipped with the art of healing; but that doesn’t mean that every ailment is manageable. Things take their own course despite the best of treatment plans and outcomes might not be in direct proportion to the hopes and prayers of the patient’s relatives.

Sometimes, I feel nauseated by the phlegmatic gesture of the people who rule the country. If a doctor feels unsafe while serving the patients, there is something gross amiss in the policies and groundwork. No one likes to be humiliated by public bashing after unsuccessfully trying to save a life; not being able to possess divine powers is not akin to crime.