Happy women's day

Dear Friends
#HappyWomensDay

Unfortunately, dear Reader, human history has witnessed many gross injustices done to females through the ages.  In the olden days in the Arab world when girls were born, they would be silenced soon after their first cry, till the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, put an end to this menace. On the Indian subcontinent, until Raja Ram Mohan Roy and others put an end to it, the unfortunate custom known as “Sati” which demanded that women cast themselves onto their husband’s funeral pyre, persisted for centuries.  Nowadays so-called educated and advanced man has gone still farther, and has been choking female foetuses while still in the womb, “the female foeticide”.  It must have affected millions of girl babies so far and has naturally created serious gender imbalances in many parts of the world.  The contribution of women to the world has been and is still enormous, and was wonderfully summed up by William Ross Wallace in his poem ‘What Rules the World?’ when he wrote that the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. It illustrates the influence a mother has on her child and, in the long run, on society itself.  From this, we understand that by yielding to her natural maternal instinct to nurture and teach her child, a woman explicitly makes the world a much better place. This puts a great responsibility on the medical fraternity to stop female foeticide, which is nothing short of murder.  An antipathy against female children in any society would soon disappear when women are enabled to become strong citizens at par with men. This is possible only by means of education for girls, in every sense of the word. They should be taught self-defence as well, so that the devil’s evil eye remains at bay. A step further towards this goal will be made when society simplifies its customs and offers equal opportunities to all. Only then will this unfortunate male imposed gender inferiority of women disappear from our planet. Destruction of this wonderful creation of the Almighty would soon become a thing of the past.

 

Excerpts from Bumpy Roads ( Chapter : - Medico in Green pastures)

Down the track of Memories 
     “I am pleased to be here and to see you all. I have come to live among you, as rhizobium lives with legumes as a symbiont and not as a parasite”, with these words I started my job soon after my house job, as Medical Officer at the Faculty of Agriculture in Wadura  Sopore, Kashmir.   It was a happy coincidence that on that same day, the students were celebrating their fresher’s day and by addressing them thus, I was given the opportunity to share my emotions about the enormity of the task facing me. While acknowledging their applause, I was acutely aware of the lack of medical facilities at my disposal. For years the faculty had had no Medical Officer, and I could feel the weight of my responsibilities on my shoulders.
“Doc! You are most welcome”, said the tall, well-built senior pharmacist Mr. Bashir Ahmad Nanda, as he took me around the College’s medical unit, which is situated on one corner of the lush green campus of the College. I made a quick assessment of available medical facilities, and together we started compiling a list of essential missing medicines, instruments etc. which would be needed for the unit. The senior pharmacist who came from Baramulla had been living in the Wadura village for years together and would visit his home on weekends. The loud sounds of his old Yazidi motor bicycle every Monday morning would mark his arrival back at the faculty. He had very good experience of the clinical problems found in the village, as he would practice there after hours.
The faculty apartments were in the heart of a pear orchard. Although there was more staff housing available on that lush green campus, only two units were occupied, one by the late Dr. Nirmal Singh, the Dean, and another where I had started to live.

 Invariably, we would meet in the evenings after out day’s work. Dr. Nirmal Singh was a very dynamic administrator and he had a very good sense of humor. During the spring season, one could take very pleasant walks amongst the soothing white flowers. The Faculty is situated in more than 250 acres of beautiful lawns, and a large variety of flowers and fruit trees all providing a unique fragrance to the passerby.

The Hurmukh range of mountains seem to safeguard the serenity of the campus. A small river called the Phoru  flows calmly along the exterior boundaries of the campus and a population of a few thousand souls live happily  on its banks.

I would often come to collect post from the administrative section of the college from Mr. Ghualm Mohamad dar, Qibla, as I would often call him, as that used to be the only way I remained connected in that internet-less era. One day I met the late Prof J.D. Safaya while collecting the post and he took me to his office. He lit a cigarette and in between puffs he went on talking to me “Doc! this is a transit in your medical career. As long as you are here you should try to contribute as much as you can, and remember what Alexander Pope said hundreds of years ago, “Honor and shame doth no condition arise, act well your part there all the honor lies”. I patiently listened his peerless advice like any disciple should, and my only negative thought was that his smoking habit was both worrying and annoying me a lot. I felt it was too premature to counsel him directly at that juncture but I made up my mind to do so, albeit indirectly; consequently, I undertook my first study on high-risk smokers and associated risk factors of atherosclerosis on the campus.
 

Order online Bumpy Roads Click here

Continue reading Medico in green pastures in
Bumpy Roads (Glimpses in the meadows of memory).
Customer reviews of the book  on goodreads.com

Excerpts from Bumpy Roads (Chapter :Medico in green pastures ,catchy cartoons)

Down the track of memories:

One day we decided to undertake a mass tetanus immunization program in the campus.
Trying to immunize healthy students against tetanus was an uphill task. “Doc, I am really afraid no one will attend our program,” one of the staff members in the medical unit said.
We decided to organize an orientation program, and during my “chalk talk,” I emphasized the importance of preventive medicine in the form of vaccination.
“Friends, if you wish to participate, tell us more about your health in the past, whether you have any allergies or any chronic illnesses, complete this pro forma and submit it to the medical unit tomorrow.” “We’ll have a fun fair later,” I went on. “You can make cartoons, play musical chairs, sing, etc. tomorrow, and have some fun.” “But,” I cautioned, “you can make any cartoon of me, but please refrain from making cartoons about your teachers and your colleagues.” Soon after
the orientation program had ended, all the students were seen boarding the college bus and leaving the campus. “No one will come tomorrow, Doc. They all have left,” said another employee of the medical unit gloomily.
“Well,” I said, “we will wait from 9am to 2pm for them and that is all we can and must do.” The next day the weather was very nice and I came out quite early in the morning from

my accommodation in the staff quarters. It was a pleasant walk through the pear orchard, and even more pleasant listening to the chirping and singing of the birds. At 9am, to our great surprise, we saw the students thronging in great numbers in their green coats, their official uniform, to the
medical unit. They started showing us the most wonderful cartoons. Our idea of drawing and displaying cartoons had certainly unleashed their creativity! It became clear to all of us why the students had boarded the bus the day before. Yes, you guessed it – it was to get material from the local market in Sopore, as no such market was available on the campus or in the nearby village. It was amazing to see how the students had depicted their problems concerning campus water, electricity, boring hostel life, etc. in a very creative manner. The funniest cartoons were about me, and with their permission, I have preserved them for the last so many years now. I still feel that those were the best gifts depicting his patient-doctor relationships that any doctor could ever receive. Thanks to all of them....

The funfair cum vaccination and blood grouping program went very nicely, and no efforts were required to inject students with the further two doses required in order to complete the program. Data from those proformas formed the basis of a useful database, as they revealed that there were 18 students who were allergic to sulfa drugs, few were allergic  to penicillin and that some had significant family histories.

Follow the Blog next week 

Continue reading Medico in green pastures in the Book



N:B: Tetanus toxoid immunization program has been recommended by American College of Surgeons for agricultural workers and researchers because of their close contact with soil that harbors tetanus spores makes them particularly vulnerable to tetanus. It consists of three doses of Injection tetanus toxoid at 0, 30days and after 6-12 months.Then every 10years single dose.