DIAMONDS IN KIDNEY

The inspiration or the heat for this post came from the recent post from the Witchy Angel on wonders that marketing does to an apparantly ordinary product.

I recently read in BBC NEWS that “Star Trek” cult Hero William Shatner famously known as “Captain Kirk” recently got his Kidney stone removed and had auctioned it for Charity for a whooping USD 25000.

Is it that Kidney stones among people in USA is a rare phenomenon or is it William Shatner’s Kidney really produces stones more precious than diamond. If it is the former, then I think the Kidney Stone clinics in India have a great export opportunity in USA.

This is not to undermine the noble intentions of Mr. William Shatner to serve the charities, though with a rather heavy dose of arrogance in the means employed. But what is painful is that there are much more productive, useful, innovative and creative products produced by the inmates or beneficiaries of many of the charities themselves which never get even the value of the efforts and money put therein. If these big monied marketing magicians are able to sell those products even at double their actual value, would it not be a great source of inspiration and satisfaction to the charities, when compared to the frustration, that they have to depend on the Kidney Stones of famous personalities for their survival.

What do you have to say about this Witchy. Sometimes I feel the words “Special”, “Famous”, “Value” etc. are all very irrational terms not really connected to any logic.

THOUGHT FOR A SPECIAL DAY

To forget is human,

To forgive is Divine.

We are all very much humans in the sense that all of us keep forgetting something everyday, but as a believer I feel the Divine or Supreme power is present in all of us. We only need to invoke the Divine power within us, why not do it by performing atleast one act of forgiving everyday. The results are indeed magical and can be realised only by experience.

Today is a special day for me and from my side I want to see all of you elevated above the human level today by not forgetting atleast one thing, and so thank you all in advance for wishing me many more Happy Returns, in the words of Dream Vendor, of the day I am supposed to have become “A Complete man”.

SELF DISCIPLINE / SELF REGULATION....

Self discipline, self regulation, planning, meticulousness, etc..are the traits my father thought are very important to a person and I used to be very poor in. My father always stresses that in the long run these traits not only allow you to be prepared and successful in most of the challenges in life, but more importantly saves a lot of money and time. But my viewpoint was otherwise in the sense that I thought that it was too strict a regime.

But an event in my neighbour’s flat a couple of days back was an eye-opener. At about 4 p.m on Wednesday, I got a call from my wife that some smoke was rising from window of the 2nd floor flat of our building. The flat was inhabited by a couple and their college going children and nobody was in the flat at that time. I immediately informed the couple in their respective offices.

I rushed home as a fire in one flat is a potential risk for all others. By the time I reached my other neighbours had broken open the door and the fire was doused. And the culprit for the fire was an iron box left in the bed with the switch on, by one of their children. The bed was smouldering for more than a couple of hours and the heat and smoke generated almost destroyed every piece of furniture in the bedroom and left the whole flat blackened. There was no insurance and the estimated damage was more than a hundred thousand rupees. The more unfortunate thing was that the flooring was so badly damaged that water starting seeping from the ceiling of the flat below theirs.

A small act of negligence lead to such a great mental and financial torture. At that point I learnt the value and importance of the traits my father always speaks about, not only for our well-being but for the well-being of the society as a whole in which we live, as a single mistake on our part can spell irreparable disaster to so many people around us. And God forbid, anything like that happens, our conscience will never forgive us for life.

NRI – NON RESIDENT BUT VERY MUCH INDIAN

We Indians have such a unique and extraordinary culture heritage that where on one hand the characteristics of our culture like tolerance, resilience and integrity during adversity helps us overcome the trauma and damage created by such huge environmental disaster like Tsunami and make us the largest democracy in the world, on the other hand certain negative characteristics like religion, casteism and politics running in our blood and emotions has been keeping us a developing nation even after 50 years of Independence.

One thought that with Globalisation and Indians migrating to all parts of the world creating their own identity wherever they go with their achievements, the negative characteristics in our culture will slowly fade away. But it was all proved wrong in the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards ceremony today, part of the Pravasi Diwas Celebrations, where President of India gave away awards to eminent NRIs excelling in various fields, when an NRI created ruckus on the award being given to an doctor practicing in USA, who he claimed was a staunch supporter of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Ironically the doctor, who was a consultant allergist, could not manage to "stem this eruption" surrounding him in the ceremony. Strangely the NRIs objected to the security personnel evicting the trouble maker, stating it was violation of their right to speech. I wonder if the honourable NRI would dare to do the same in front of a gathering addressed by President George Bush in USA.

Whereas the theme of the event was to celebrate and decorate NRIs all over the world achieving excellence and create a place for Indians wherever they go and still thinking of their home country, but in reality the NRIs were more bound only to their own native state, their individual problems, their own gender and there was not a single selfless, casteless, religion-free, apolitical Indian in that forum.

So even after having travelled throughout the world, learning and understanding diverse cultures, society, ethics and lifestyle, especially in the developed countries, the Indians still remain only developing.

ITS SAD.

A NEW YEAR DOUBLE

BLIND WITH A VISION

Ashish Goel is a handsome and intelligent 25-year-old MBA Graduate from Mumbai working as a finance analyst. But what makes him stand apart from other professionals is that he is totally blind. Life has played a very cruel joke with him when he was identified with a degenerative eye disease at the age of 15 and started losing his vision and by the age of 19, he was totally blind. Though initially he cursed his destiny but ultimately got the better of it and with sheer guts and determination completed his MBA in Mumbai. Now he wants to further study Management in USA and work in a top financial slot in the Wall Street. That makes him extraordinary.

I recall here my earlier post on Kausalya, an HIV positive woman, who redefined positive with her extraordinary achievements and now it is Ashish Goel. Sometimes I feel why God puts only the extraordinary people through the most grueling tests or is it that only such grueling tests create the extraordinary.


POLITICS IN MEDICINE

Its about a fortnight back that, in the parliament, the politicians of West Bengal across party lines were objecting to politics in sports, on the exclusion of Saurav Ganguly from the Indian Cricket Team. For once I was very happy that even the politicians agree that politics leaves a bad taste wherever it goes.

But now a politician from the same state, the CPI-M Member of Parliament Ms. Brinda Karat has given a political flavour to the Ayurvedha by alleging that Ayurvedic products of Swami Ramdev, a famous practitioner of Yoga and Ayurvedha, contain animal extracts. Unfortunately, except for the Communist, all other section of public and politicians do not find this flavour very tasty.

Though the CPI-M, including Ms. Brinda Karat, may argue against any politics here, but the pertinent question as to why Swami Ramdev's medicine was particularly chosen for testing is unanswered since there are a lot of other Ayurvedic brands in the market much before Swami Ramdev.

Is it because Ayurvedha is a Hindu medicine or Swami Ramdev is a Hindu or because he seems to be close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Otherwise what is the reason for Ms. Brinda Karat's sudden onslaught on this issue when, as a section of the media rightly pointed out, nowhere in the Ayurvedha it states that it is a purely vegetarian medicinal preparation and for that matter any field of medicine.

Ms. Brinda Karat, please understand politics is a very special perfume made from a very rare flower that blossoms only during election and its perfume smells best only inside the parliament, put it at any other platform and it stinks.