Although the past couple of days have been exceptionally busy for me I still had the time to catch a few stray news reports showing the images of terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. It scarred me!
I strongly believe those who orchestrate such attacks do not have the faintest hint of humanity in them. People who can be so cruel and devastating can belong to no religion or community- they belong to only one Community called the Community of cowards and terrorists!
Words fail me sometimes and I know any condolences extended for the victims of the attack is not going to suffice. I can only say I'm sorry on behalf of the entire human race that such atrocities still happen, people are are still killed like cattle, inhumane acts are still committed when we claim ourselves to be human and that too civilized ones.
Do those who commit such attacks ever stop to think what would have happened if similar pain was inflicted on their family. It's unfortunate that people do not internalise painful situations like this, they look at a few fleeting glimpse of grieving families on the TV screen and the next moment they are out enjoying their Christmas shopping! Well, such nonchalant attitude on our part has led us to where we are. We have become selfish and conceited- we think as long as it doesn't touch our turf, our home, we do not need to bother about it. But how long does it take for these terrorists to cross a few countries- they can be right at your doorstep when you least expect them! So what we need right now is to become sensitive to people around us and the pain they are going through, maybe someday we will win against these negative elements of our society not by war but by being more sensitive to others, by spreading love as our Lord would want us to!
I still believe there is light at the end of the tunnel, there is hope at the end- all we need is some faith to guide us. Love is a pretty strong emotion and also very overpowering at that- it can conquer all.....we can conquer the terror spread by these elements of our society by our love and believe me soon we will have a beautiful pristine world where people won't spread hate but will spread love!
I am an eternal optimist- let us spread cheer and love every second of the year and not restrict it to any particular season of the year- we CAN counter terror with a strong message of love for everyone!!!
Make love not war!!
Cheers and you will hear from me soon-
December 4, 2008
September 24, 2008
September 15, 2008
A little help can change the face of this world
Well, what a coincidence !! One of my medical school friends has spotted a site, where if you click on a link in the site it contributes $2 to a charity of your choice. I am extremely thankful to him for bringing it to my notice because I was searching for similar things!
The reason why I started this group was to assist people to find ways to help others and I am just so grateful that people ARE taking this seriously. So cheers and start clicking!!!
Go to the following link you will find a link(flash message) which says that every click will feed a child . Please click on it to help out . So all it needs is a click.
http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1
You will hear from me soon!!
The reason why I started this group was to assist people to find ways to help others and I am just so grateful that people ARE taking this seriously. So cheers and start clicking!!!
Go to the following link you will find a link(flash message) which says that every click will feed a child . Please click on it to help out . So all it needs is a click.
http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1
You will hear from me soon!!
September 5, 2008
A small video to raise a huge awareness
Every once in a while the pangs of guilt pinch me and I feel pretty desperate to do things to make this world a better place. Have we reached an impasse in this world ? The answer is no; we still have hope...we cannot give up on humanity and all the good judgement and basic sense of morality that comes with it! We still have people who are willing to help others, are not selfish and think everyone in this world are born equal.
Everyone does deserve a fair chance to live. But do the ones who are privileged(I include myself as one) offer the less fortunate ones a descent chance. We hog on wealth , take up more space than necessary, eat more than we feel like, waste money in every possible ways and add to the insult by talking badly about those unfortunate people in the less fortunate countries. Let's stop for a moment here and ponder if we have ever spared a thought for a child in India who is forced to beg because he doesn't have a father and his mother is too sick to earn a living, have we even flinched once to think about a kid in Africa who picks off few grain of rice from a trash can because he has not got to eat for the past 5 days, have we ever shed a tear for those kids or their families who are killed in wars. No we have not .....you know why? We are deluded! We are too bothered with things that are superficial, we are bothered about our son's soccer match, we are preoccupied with our shopping list or the new Gucci watch your wife has gifted or the sparkling mall that has opened next door.
Isn't it depressing that we are willing to buy magazines to read about which celebrity has cellulite but we are not bothered about the thousands of starving people around the world or the millions who lose their family due to a war we know not why we are fighting! We have become shallow, superficial and unfocused. We need to stop in our tracks and think. If every one of us even spare a thought about these god-forsaken souls we an make a difference. Think hard... the 3 dollars you spent to buy a trashy magazine would you have given it to some poor soul. It would have bought him food for one whole month. Sad...yes it is, but true!
The purpose of this blog is not to put all of us on a guilt trip, it is not to say that we are horrible individuals neither it is to make you feel bad for thinking about your kids or yourselves. Those are natural human tendencies and we do tend to look out for our immediate family but as human beings those are not all we are destined to do! We are destined to loom into our souls sometimes in our lives and search what is important to us as human beings. I will write more about how each one of us can make a difference, after we have searched our heart, in future posts.
All I ask of you is, if you are reading this know that somewhere deep inside, you still have a person who is good and untainted... a person who is crying out to make you listen to him. Please do not ignore your inner voice or your basic urge to help the unfortunate ones. Spare a thought, spare a tear and you will be a much better person at the end of the day.
Check out the video link I have posted with this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfC_KLDLqf8 ! The fact that I am writing this blog shows that I have not lost faith in humanity yet!!!
Look out for more to come on how you CAN make a difference!
Everyone does deserve a fair chance to live. But do the ones who are privileged(I include myself as one) offer the less fortunate ones a descent chance. We hog on wealth , take up more space than necessary, eat more than we feel like, waste money in every possible ways and add to the insult by talking badly about those unfortunate people in the less fortunate countries. Let's stop for a moment here and ponder if we have ever spared a thought for a child in India who is forced to beg because he doesn't have a father and his mother is too sick to earn a living, have we even flinched once to think about a kid in Africa who picks off few grain of rice from a trash can because he has not got to eat for the past 5 days, have we ever shed a tear for those kids or their families who are killed in wars. No we have not .....you know why? We are deluded! We are too bothered with things that are superficial, we are bothered about our son's soccer match, we are preoccupied with our shopping list or the new Gucci watch your wife has gifted or the sparkling mall that has opened next door.
Isn't it depressing that we are willing to buy magazines to read about which celebrity has cellulite but we are not bothered about the thousands of starving people around the world or the millions who lose their family due to a war we know not why we are fighting! We have become shallow, superficial and unfocused. We need to stop in our tracks and think. If every one of us even spare a thought about these god-forsaken souls we an make a difference. Think hard... the 3 dollars you spent to buy a trashy magazine would you have given it to some poor soul. It would have bought him food for one whole month. Sad...yes it is, but true!
The purpose of this blog is not to put all of us on a guilt trip, it is not to say that we are horrible individuals neither it is to make you feel bad for thinking about your kids or yourselves. Those are natural human tendencies and we do tend to look out for our immediate family but as human beings those are not all we are destined to do! We are destined to loom into our souls sometimes in our lives and search what is important to us as human beings. I will write more about how each one of us can make a difference, after we have searched our heart, in future posts.
All I ask of you is, if you are reading this know that somewhere deep inside, you still have a person who is good and untainted... a person who is crying out to make you listen to him. Please do not ignore your inner voice or your basic urge to help the unfortunate ones. Spare a thought, spare a tear and you will be a much better person at the end of the day.
Check out the video link I have posted with this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfC_KLDLqf8 ! The fact that I am writing this blog shows that I have not lost faith in humanity yet!!!
Look out for more to come on how you CAN make a difference!
September 3, 2008
An account of discrimination and oppression
I have always been shocked by the discrimination I have seen around me. Having been brought up in India, I have had ample opportunity to evidence such social crimes and injustice. India’s population is growing at an exponential rate and as the supply demand ratio gets tipped, I find there are more people than jobs, more mouths to feed than food, and more things to be done than resources available.
In a situation like this, which ideally breeds poverty, discrimination is an everyday occurrence. There is this privileged class (who are privileged by natural inheritance of money) and the other who strive to barely survive. This underprivileged class is so deprived, they are not even aware of the fundamental human rights. It is like a vicious cycle where people are too poor to even afford education (not knowing education is one of their basic rights), hence too illiterate to secure jobs and ultimately continuing to languish in poverty.
The question arises “Why does anybody not do anything about this?” well, the answer is pretty simple. There are lot of vested interests for the privileged class, who by the way also represents the Government and the policy makers. They simply don’t want to increase the competition load in an already saturated society. So the end-result is an unfortunate biased distribution of money, extreme oppression and discrimination of a select few and not many people trying to change the situation.
I had been fortunate enough to have gone to a school but was always plagued by this guilt of being privileged. So I decided to do something where I can contribute in someway to the improvement of the society and hence decided to do medicine. While in medical school, I soon realised the same vicious cycle has perpetrated into health care also: the Government does not enforce insurance policies and the private insurance companies that exist charge too high a premium for these poverty stricken people to afford. So unfortunately the same group of people also gets discriminated in Health Care. On top of all these, poor living conditions, insufficient food etc. makes them even more susceptible to disease.
The entire situation has done nothing but made me ponder more and more about how to deal with it. I realised that being in research and entering the world of health care from a different angle will allow me to look at this entire situation from a different light. An analytical research mindedness will ultimately help me to probably tackle the situation in a much constructive way. These will help me in dealing with discrimination. So it is imperative that we take the right steps to change the life of people who are discriminated and oppressed, to change the life of the people who are deprived of their fundamental rights and to make our society an unbiased equal opportunity society where everyone has the right to live life decently. This can be only done by the right policies and the right kind of attitude.
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