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.