flutter by a helicopter

hi all,

reporting back a lot late. sorry busy with many mnay things.

ours is a quaint little town where not much happens that can amuse you or raise your eyebrows or make you gasp.

But something did happen yesterday.

i was on my regular 4 km morning walk today morning whan i spotted a few heads looking at some big thing. Naturally i did what anybody else would do. go there. thats it, I went there and to my surprise saw this firey red chopper nicely perched in the big ground in the centre of the town.

I wondered how did this come here. No political leader was suppesed to visit. Moreover the elections are over. So now these people are not going to see our face for the next couple of years, until they shamelessly come begging for votes again!

People were inquisitively looking at the chopper, a first close look for many of them ( including me!). there was a fire engine and an ambulance as a standby. three policemen were 'guarding' the flying machine.

On enquuiring with the onlookers the whole story was revealed.

It seems that the heavy industries minister of our state, along with his family, took off in the choper a day before from kankavli, around 300 km south of dapoli, to go to mumbai, the capital of our state.
the chopper was caught in rough weather, and due to sudden darkening the pilot could not see. The chopper started drifting from its course. They were trynig to land in a safe place, when they found out our ground and perched their helicopter there.
The minister and the family left for mumbai in a car, and the pilot stayed back overnight.

The poor policemen and the firemen had to stay put near the chopper for the whole night, guarding the machine and the makeshift 'helipad'.

This incident gave some food for gossip to the localites and now this will be churned and churned for days together.

The pilot left late in the morning after some refilling.

The helicopter has reached its hangar.

But gossips wiil be here to stay for a long time to come!!

see you soon.

Till then, good bye!!!!

myths.

hi all,
sorry for not writing for a long time. was pretty busy with many not so pretty things!!
patients come to me with all sorts of questions. most of them stem from myths that are circulating from generations together:

1)The spectacle number increases due to watching TV: its an age old myth. my parents have told me the same. though its a good excuse to shy away unrelenting kids from TV, its the biggest myth i feel. what i can agree to is that,TV watching taxes your eyes a lot and thus the person has lots of difficulty and strain while doing other activities like studying ( which hardly any kid does willingly), or reading etc.

2) don't look at the light once u have been operated for cataract: this cant exactly be called a myth. in the olden days cataract surgery was barbaric if you compare the techniques with today's techniques. large cuts and thick sutures. the patient would genuinely have difficulty looking directly towards light. but people have taken this too far. in my area, my own patients, even educated ones, sit secluded in a room, with the goggles on even a month after surgery, with all the doors and windows closed and curtained! and these same people seek permission for watching TV!!
now the latest techniques of cataract surgery allow u to resume your normal life even within two days of surgery. but old habits die hard!
further, everybody in India has a strong phobia of getting operated in summer. again it was valid in the very old days when patients would have to lie down in one position for days on together, not to move their head at all ( with sand bags cushioning the head from both the sides), and they were not allowed to have a head bath for at least two months!!
now after a phacoemulsification surgery patients can have a head bath after 2 days. there are no restrictions on movement. but still the old adage stays " no cataract surgery in summer. u will loose the eye."

3) i don't know about mega/metro cities like mumbai, pune etc. but in semi rural and rural areas, people still relate a tooth extraction to a cataract or an eye problem. its not true. but i can reason for them. the teeth and the periorbital area are served by the same nerve ( various branches of trigeminal). so a patient having tooth ache can sometimes have pain AROUND the eye ( not the eye per se'). may be that's why this feeling gets generated.

4) in India most of the time any ailment in females including cataract is related to a family planning operation. the poor tubal ligation is held responsible for anything and everything that the female might suffer after the procedure. this is no the truth. Tubal ligation is absolutely NOT related to any other ailments.

there are many more myths which need to be busted. there are many things all of us need to know. i will keep on writing as and when things come to my mind

i sincerely request all to have a look at two blogs by my friend Dr Manish Jain. the links are there on my blog ( rendezvous.doctors and rendezvous.bell the cat). serious readers will get a beautiful insight into many things related to medicine and bureaucracy.
till then
c ya!!

is your doctor a schoolo drop out!!

hi all,

have u ever thought of asking your Doctor his or her credentials? at least, have you tried to take a look at his degrees? surely you must have at some or the other time.

but what about those people who are illiterate, or may be literate but ignorant.

In the past few years of my practice I have seen that people here are least bothered about the skills and knowledge of the person whom they call 'doctor'

this anecdote dates back to around a year ago:

I operated upon an elderly lady for a cataract. The operation was successful and she had good vision post operative.

i was talking to her relatives after the surgery. the subject drifted to schools, education system and syllabi's.

I told the patients daughter that I don't know what changes have been made is the syllabus as its been 19 years that I have left school.

So what should she ask.

"so you did not learn after 10 th standard?"

if you come to know that your doctor is actually a school drop out, you would faint on the spot.

but this lady showed no remorse for getting her mothers eye operated from a person whom she thought to be school drop out. for her any person who successfully does any sort of medical work is a doctor.

here they call the optician a doctor, the local medical laboratory technician is also a doctor. well, the opticians and technicians conveniently show their 'inability' to bring forth the truth.

to continue the story further:

"no", I said, " I have done junior college after that and than further education to..."

before I could complete my sentence, pop came the question," so you did go to college. what have you done. did you do a B Com or a BA?"

for this lady college only meant B Com or BA.

I was left wondering at her ignorance and lack of knowledge.

I sat through half an hour and explained her the medical education system. how much she understood, is another part!!

This lack of knowledge and ignorance if what helps quacks to establish their flourishing practices. The fact, that people are not ready to learn, that they are happy in their ignorant world, is what helps these quacks more!!

'Advantages' of Surgery

whenever a person recovers vision after a successful cataract surgery, obviously he or she is happy.

but reasons for happiness can be different!!

I had a patient who was blind in both the eyes due to a dense fully mature cataract.
his health had deteriorated. he wouldn't eat and drink properly for the fear of having to visit the toilet frequently, for which he needed 100% assistance.
he got operated for both eye cataract removal and lens implant and had good vision post operative.

he was happy, i was happy. i saw his health improving every visit. i would now meet this villager in the mornings during my morning walks.

after a few days, i met his son, and asked about him.

the son reported that he is ill and has been admitted to the hospital.

i was aghast. it seems that after the surgeries, he was in excellent health for a few weeks. he had been a chronic drinker and had quit around two years ago. i reckon it was more to do with his inability to go to the country liquor bar, rather than abstinence in its true sense.

after he started seeing properly, he resumed his regular visits to the liquor shop.
his drinking increased to unacceptable limits. in fact, now i presume that whenever i use to meet him in the mornings during my walks, he actually would be on his way to the bar.
this guy always used to say that he is very very happy , thank me profusely, and would tell me how much i have helped him get his 'life' back!!.

Now, do you see the reason for his happiness for having got his sight back!!

now he is recovering. but you never know when he will be spotted on the 'morning walks'

see u soon!

The 'WADI' culture. perfect example of local self government>

hello all,
each village in india has a gram panchayat. ( the village's governing council, following the Panchayat raj concept given to India by mahatma Gandhi.)

in the kokan region of maharashtra where i practice each village is divided into small hamlets of around 20 to 30 houses, known as a WADI, all under the aegis of the gram panshayat.

if u peep into their social structure , you will find the concept of Local self government exmplified beautifully>

here are a few examples:

1) a marriage is decided by the consent of all the elders of the wadi. the whole wadi celebrates the marriage and acts as an event management body. there are no caterers, no pandal contractors, no halls or marriage palaces booked! the marriage is solemnised in the courtyard of the brides house. each house hold in the wadi is given a specified duty.
for example: if one group is looking after decoration, the other is looking after cooking the food, while another group is busy arranging accomodation for the guests ( which is done in the different houses of the wadi itself ).

it is a social obligation that every house hold HAS to follow. if any house hold does not do so, they are declared out cast.

marriages within the WADI are discouraged

the best thing: compulsory HIV and HBSAG ( hepatitis B) testing is imposed on the bride and groom befor marriage. The tests are conducted in the local government hospital.

2) nearly each members owns some farm land, which is traditionally cultivated to grow rice in the monsoons. all the work is done in a group.

a time table is made, and accordingly one member from each house is selected. the whole team goes to one farm and finishes the work in one day. next day its someone anothers farm, so on and so forth!

3) one to two members from each house work in mumbai or pune. its compulsory for atleast one outstation member to be present for major festivals like Ganpati, Holi etc, as these are celebrated within the WADI as a group, apart from individual celebrations. again there are strict work protocols and timetables to be followed and targets to be achieved.

4) most of the times the disputes are settled in the monthly WADI meeting. the decision of the council of elders is binding, and the erring party is asked to pay a fine which goes to the WADI developement fund, thru which monet is spent for things like festivals, get to gethers and necessary public works.

i have seen this working for the last 6 years.

recently, in the wake of the swine flu epidemics, all the WADIS in all the villages of the DAPOLI tehsil have met and decided on the following:

1) relatives, family members coming from outside dapoli, will not be allowed to come home if they have symptoms, and they will be subjected to quarantine and testing at the government hospital

2) all hotels, resorts and individual tourist businesses ( there are many, as dapoli is a fast developing tourist spot), will be kept absolutely closed till the 30th of august.

allthis has been decided without the authorities asking to do so. it has been a spontaneous decision.

hats offf!!!

see you soon

vangelis

hi all,

know whos vangelis. a greek musician.

listen to his two beauriful creations. enjoy




most of us will never ever forget this one

hi all,

here's a great piece of national integration.

see this sikh singing in excellent and crystal clear marathi.

take care!