Teaching is an act of supreme generosity and the greatest act of charity.

                                     WHAT IS TEACHING AND LEARNING?
The art of teaching is compared to the ancient craft of the midwife by Socrates; where as learning and practicing medicine and agriculture are looked upon as cooperative arts by Aristotle. As the midwife assists the pregnant woman to give birth to baby, the teacher assists the student to acquire knowledge. Teaching is assisting or helping to make the process of understanding easy and correct. The teacher is  not producing  knowledge but makes the learner an active producer of knowledge just like skilled physician or farmer does to make health or growth more certain and regular. Here one should not confuse between education and teaching as they are different. Teaching is an activity where as education or learning is a process very similar to that of the absorption of nutrients and water in the process of digestion. Teaching is done with the purpose of bringing about learning. A teacher enters into a dialogue with the student which goes far beyond mere talk. What is taught is transmitted almost unconsciously through the personal exchange between the teacher and the student. A giving and receiving act. The teacher gives, and the student receives. The student follows the discipline transferred by the teacher for the development of mind and body. Hence students may be referred as disciples.
. Teaching always involves a relation between the mind of one person and the mind of another. The teacher is not merely a talking book, an animated phonograph record, broadcast to an unknown audience. He enters into a dialogue with his student. This dialogue goes far beyond mere "talk," for a good deal of what is taught is transmitted almost unconsciously in the personal interchange between teacher and student. This is a two-way relation. The teacher gives, and the student receives aid and guidance. The student is a "disciple"; that is, he accepts and follows the discipline prescribed by the teacher for the development of his mind. This is not a passive submission to arbitrary authority. It is an active appropriation by the student of the directions indicated by the teacher. The good student uses his teacher just as a child uses his parents, as a means of attaining maturity and independence. The recalcitrant student, who spurns a teacher's help, is wasteful and self-destructive.
Speaking simply and in the broadest sense, the teacher shows the student how to discern, evaluate, judge, and recognize the truth. He does not impose a fixed content of ideas and doctrines that the student must learn by rote. He teaches the student how to learn and think for himself. He encourages rather than suppresses a critical and intelligent response.
Socrates gives us a basic insight into the nature of teaching when he compares the art of teaching to the ancient craft of the midwife. Just as the midwife assists the body to give birth to new life, so the teacher assists the mind to deliver itself of ideas, knowledge, and understanding. The essential notion here is that teaching is a humble, helping art. The teacher does not produce knowledge or stuff ideas into an empty, passive mind. It is the learner, not the teacher, who is the active producer of knowledge and ideas.
The ancients distinguish the skills of the physician and the farmer from those of the shoemaker and the house builder. Aristotle calls medicine and agriculture cooperative arts, because they work with nature to achieve results that nature is able to produce by itself. Shoes and houses would not exist unless men produced them; but the living body attains health without the intervention of doctors, and plants and animals grow without the aid of farmers. The skilled physician or farmer simply makes health or growth more certain and regular.
Teaching, like farming and healing, is a cooperative art which helps nature do what it can do itself -- though not as well without it. We have all learned many things without the aid of a teacher. Some exceptional individuals have acquired wide learning and deep insight with very little formal schooling. But for most of us the process of learning is made more certain and less painful when we have a teacher's help. His methodical guidance makes our learning -- and it is still ours -- easier and more effective.
One basic aspect of teaching is not found in the other two cooperative arts that work with organic nature. Teaching always involves a relation between the mind of one person and the mind of another. The teacher is not merely a talking book, an animated phonograph record, broadcast to an unknown audience. He enters into a dialogue with his student. This dialogue goes far beyond mere "talk," for a good deal of what is taught is transmitted almost unconsciously in the personal interchange between teacher and student. This is a two-way relation. The teacher gives, and the student receives aid and guidance. The student is a "disciple"; that is, he accepts and follows the discipline prescribed by the teacher for the development of his mind. This is not a passive submission to arbitrary authority. It is an active appropriation by the student of the directions indicated by the teacher. The good student uses his teacher just as a child uses his parents, as a means of attaining maturity and independence. The recalcitrant student, who spurns a teacher's help, is wasteful and self-destructive.
Speaking simply and in the broadest sense, the teacher shows the student how to discern, evaluate, judge, and recognize the truth. He does not impose a fixed content of ideas and doctrines that the student must learn by rote. He teaches the student how to learn and think for himself. He encourages rather than suppresses a critical and intelligent response.
The student's response and growth is the only reward suitable for such a labour of love. Teaching, the highest of the ministerial or cooperative arts, is devoted to the good of others. It is an act of supreme generosity and the greatest act of charity.

LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP

“The weak are dominated by their ego, the wise dominate their ego, and the intelligent are in a constant struggle against their ego.”
Anybody can critisise anybody else provided they are unbiased. A biased criticism sprouts only from a plagued mind. One who is criticized must be mature enough to give an ear or turn a deaf ear, as each criticiser is a different entity with very different outlook. While dealing with public one should come fully out from the shell of egoism.
As a real human being, one will find plenty of people around him/her with unflattering traits and characteristics. They can be someone who is just plain stupid or disgustingly character-obese, a friend who is lazy slob that gets nothing done, that drama queen at work who complains all the time his/her family member who wastes their life away by watching Netflix  and playing video games all  day and so on. It is sure one can think of more examples from one’s own day to day life. The point is that these people exist everywhere with just handful of exceptions.  Even the greatest of man will have his flaws.
Does one feel disgust and contempt every time he/she come across these people?  If yes, one needn’t feel guilty. While one’s deranged society, mad with political correctness will have one feel guilty for being judgmental; being judgmental is completely normal and human. One wouldn’t have been evolved with it if it didn’t help one survive. What is important is not whether one is judgmental or not but what one do with these judgmental thoughts.
The best way to use judgmental thoughts is to use them as a means of improving oneself by initiating a moment of self reflection. For example, while one is judging someone else’s character, maybe there is something about one’s own character that can be improved. When one scorns someone else’s lack of discipline and perseverance, one should take care that one oneself is disciplined and persevering in all areas of one’s life. While one becomes annoyed and even angered by the flaws and weaknesses of others, remember that one has one’s own responsibilities to overcome own flaws and weaknesses.
It is far too easy to look down upon those who are beneath one and feel better about oneself. It makes it easy to forget that one has yet more to master in one’s own life, This is exactly why people get addicted to looking down upon others in contempt with some going as far as bullying. It gives them a relief from having to focus on their own flaws and shortcomings. Don’t fall into the trap of self-contentment and complacency. It doesn’t matter how big their flaws are or how small one’s is. That difference is meaningless. One’s judgment of others should be a means of one’s self improvement, not a means of petty status comparison. The only way one will become a better man or woman is if one strives towards one’s goals and set a higher standard for oneself without putting self or others down.

No man stands so straight as when he stoops to help the deserving. ~Knights of Pythagoras

All of us talk about OTHER people, but we rarely reflect on ourselves. Are we really honest with ourselves, how would we answer this question?

Do we love our fellow human beings?
Each of us is born into a truly astonishing and frightening amount of hatred. Emerging from the warmth of the womb, we take in from our first breaths an insidious pollution. The ubiquitous, toxic hatred into which we are born is millennia old yet newly refreshed, newly created, newly enforced, and newly heaped up high upon the same ancient, toxic junk pile every single day, every moment. It is as invisible and as pervasive and as normal to us as the air we breathe. We might find that we wouldn’t even recognize the world or ourselves if we no longer hated others
One who has far more than enough to live and to satisfy one’s material and spiritual needs may not consider oneself to be hating a fellow human being who is forced to choose which one of their children will have to die because there is not enough food to sustain everyone in the family.
What is the purpose of life?

All believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.

For a start, it is possible to divide every kind of happiness and suffering into two main categories: mental and physical. Of the two, the mind exerts the greatest influence on most of us. Unless we are gravely ill or deprived of basic necessities, our physical condition plays a secondary role in life. Hence, we should devote our most serious efforts to bringing about mental peace.

 The greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion.
The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes. Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others puts the mind at ease. This gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the ultimate source of success in life.
We can strive gradually to become more compassionate, we can develop both genuine sympathy for others' suffering and the will to help remove their pain. As a result, our own serenity and inner strength will increase.


The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence. It results from the profound interdependence we all share with one another. Some believe that, while love and compassion are marvelous and good, they are not really very relevant. Our world, they say, is not a place where such beliefs have much influence or power. They claim that anger and hatred are so much a part of human nature that humanity will always be dominated by them. This is in agreeable.
We humans have existed in our present form for about 125,000 years. If during this time the human mind had been primarily controlled by anger and hatred, our population would have decreased. But today, despite all our wars, we find that the human population is greater than ever. This clearly indicates that love and compassion predominate in the world.

True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Therefore, a truly compassionate attitude towards others does not change even if they behave negatively Of course, developing this kind of compassion is not at all easy! As a start, consider the following facts:

Whether people are beautiful and friendly or unattractive and disruptive, ultimately they are human beings, just like one's self. Like one's self, they want happiness and do not want suffering.

Now, when we recognize that all beings are equal in both their desire for happiness and their right to obtain it, we automatically feel empathy and closeness for them. Through accustoming our mind to this sense of universal altruism, we develop a feeling of responsibility for others: the wish to help them actively overcome their problems. All terms are within our power, given patience and time, to develop this kind of compassion. We should begin by removing the greatest hindrances to compassion: anger and hatred.

As we all know, these are extremely powerful emotions and they can overwhelm our entire mind. Nevertheless, they can be controlled and replaced by an equally forceful energy that stems from compassion, reason and patience. Merely thinking about compassion and reason and patience will not be enough to develop them. We must wait for difficulties to arise and then attempt to practice them.

And who creates such opportunities? Not our friends, of course, but our enemies. They are the ones who give us the most trouble. So if we truly wish to learn, we should consider enemies to be our best teachers. For a person who cherishes compassion and love, the practice of tolerance is essential, and for that, an enemy is indispensable.

So we should feel grateful to our enemies, for it is they who can best help us develop a tranquil mind. Also, it is often the case in both personal and public life, that with a change in circumstances, enemies become friends. So anger and hatred are our real enemies. These are the forces we most need to confront and defeat, not the temporary enemies who appear intermittently throughout life.


Individual happiness can contribute in a profound and effective way to the overall improvement of our entire human community. Because we all share an identical need for love, it is possible to feel that anybody we meet, in whatever circumstances, is a brother or sister. It is foolish to dwell on external differences, because our basic natures are the same. At every level of society, familial, tribal, national and international the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion. All that is necessary for each of us is to develop our good human qualities.

“SWATCH BHARATH”!!

There is nothing wrong with anybody's race. It is just a matter of what stage of development we are in. While there has been an increasingly growing civic sense with greater awareness, education and exposure, there is a lot to be desired. And this can't happen with a single organization or political party or individual. It has to be a collective effort in brushing aside the allegation that Indians lack civic sense and discipline.

Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam once said in a speech that Indians would never litter in Singapore or ask a policeman 'Do you know who I am?' in the US. So true! We see Indians behaving in a very civilized manner outside India. But many of these people spit on and litter the roads in their home country. Why?
It is because they are not stopped from doing it nor penalized for it. Of course there are laws to prevent it, but none of them are implemented. A man who is self-conscious and aware of the sanctity of his surroundings, and has a good sense of hygiene, never litters anywhere he goes- penalty or no penalty. But for those who are not that self-disciplined, need laws that penalize such acts. Nobody wants to pay up a hefty fine, and hence they all will comply to the rules. We are the most indisciplined and arrogant on roads and public places compared to people of other countries. We show no or least respect for public property and never mind in spitting, dumping or vandalizing them and even go to the extent of damaging historical monuments.
Cleanliness and discipline are systemic things. Apart from development, we should also focus on changing habits through laws and public campaigning. Our habits are a factor of the environment, law enforcement and education levels. As we change them, we will learn cleanliness too. One of our favorite deeds is to attribute more ills to our country, which is not without reason either. On most roads and public places, there is a gross shortage of garbage bins and spittoons. Even where one or two are kept, they'll either be overflowing or just ill-placed. Public urinals are far too few and generally, ill-maintained.
Many of us have a feeling that even if the infrastructure is in place, why should we use them? We are paying for it in the form of tax. After all, rules and public property are meant to be broken! Most of our laws are limited to the Constitution. No one catches or punishes people for committing civic offences.  Even if get caught on rare occasions, we can always bribe our ways out. A person with influence can get out of it in a phone call. We have the largest illiterate population in the world. A country like ours with a very low literacy rate combined with poor infrastructure for primary education, it is not easy to teach civic sense and emphasize on value-based education.( 26% of our population is illiterate)
 We believe that we are a free country in every sense. A combination of some of the above factors builds a notion within us that freedom does not have the additional catch of responsibilities attached to them. Just like the administration forgets about laws and rules, we have also conveniently forgotten about our Fundamental Duties and always remember only our Fundamental Rights. Ignorance is probably one of the standout factors among us. From politics to laws to civic sense, we are pretty unmindful of them. We are instead, happier to live in our cocoons and for us; ignorance is bliss as long as we aren't affected in any way. As long as our homes are clean, why bother about someone littering the roads. As long as the property broken is not something we are related to, who cares? We are too driven towards our personal goals to care about civic sense as an ethic.
Lack of cleanliness is  not a monetary accountability. It's also the way society views that particular act. Everybody sees a dirty environment and assumes that since it’s already dirty, littering more is not going to make a difference. If majority of us followed traffic rules, never littered the streets, queued up like civilized citizens and protected our historical monuments from juvenile scribbling by adults, then the rest few will have to change. Nobody wants to be publicly shamed or singled out for doing a dirty act. Social exclusion is a big enough threat to change a person’s attitude, habits and behavior. But if the majority is doing something wrong, the mob mentality wins and something unjustified suddenly becomes a normal day-to-day occurrence. The few keep trying to explain the need for civic-sense to the rest, and keep hoping that things will change, and the numbers will get reversed some day.

Parents and teachers in a combined way can create a clean sensed generation. Parents as they are worried about the grades of their children at school and try to teach them Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology etc at extra cost and time or as they put effort to train them to win a crore worth flat through singing or dancing, should put a little time to teach civic conduct and social duties. Basically, no one think it is imperative that we learn to respect our environment, be courteous towards other people and learn to empathize. Granted, these are the things they should be learning on their own, isn't it be nice if in those 16 years of learning, someone drilled into them the concept of courteousness?

An understanding of the cultural fabric from Ancient India will definitely create a civic and environment sensitive personality. Ancient India is believed to have given rise to spectacular civilizations from Mohenjo-Daro to Harrapa and from Mauryans to Vijaynagras. We learn more about the Kings and their wars. Little is known and taught about their public life, though we know that the then Indians had and obeyed a great sense of private and public discipline. Systems, rules and curriculum must be developed and taught so that in public life that ensures public discipline, credits of which go to the value system prevalent at those times, ownership of public space, sanctity of private space and treating the land as mother land in the spirit of the word.
A leader’s voice must be heard for him to be accepted, or else how wise he is , turns out to be an outcast. Our new prime minister is heard by majority, even by opponents. “SWATCH BHARATH”!!

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The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.

The word POLICE is coined from the first letters of certain virtues which are Greek and Latin to the whole system itself.

Politeness

Obedience

Loyalty

Integrity

Courtesy

Earnestness

It is rather shameful and painful to say that an unbelievable percent of the police officials are criminals with a very clear cut criminal background and persistent relation with notorious criminals. A candidate joining the training academy or Police training camp will have all the abstemious natures of a real human being. There upon his transition starts from the innate to the hyper-egoist, ultra brutal creature which ever yarns to earn, attack and kill, one who is sapping out the very values of all human relations and gaining in the language, outlook, expression fully cannibalistic.

It is staggering that the people entrusted to protect us from crime have criminal convictions themselves. It is even more worrying that so many police officers convicted of serious crimes involving dishonesty, violence, rape and murder have been allowed to keep their jobs. The public entrust the police with the use of legal force precisely because they are taken to be self-disciplined and restrained, which is why anyone convicted of a violent offence should be dismissed. One cannot understand how a police officer convicted of serious crimes can perform his duty effectively. The trust that is absolutely vital in policing is seriously undermined when police officers are being convicted of crimes. Allowing police officers convicted of offences of violence or dishonesty to continue serving merely brings the vast majority of law-abiding and diligent officers into disrepute and making the whole system a sepulcher for virtues. Although there are vetting procedures for dealing with new applicants, there is no home office guidance for dealing with officers committing offences while serving.

There is a disturbing lack of consistency in how police force deals with officers who are convicted of crimes. Where an officer has committed misconduct, which can include a criminal offence, a range of disciplinary actions should be taken. Each case should be judged on its merit. The force concerned should then take action depending on a range of factors including the severity of the offence and its impact on an officer's ability to carry out his duties.

What is known to the public for decades is that there a nexus between Politicians, Police and Criminal elements and there is a proliferation of criminal gangs under political and police patronage. If our Democracy is to survive the onslaught of criminal elements - the organised crime on the system, there is need to take urgent and decisive steps. Politicians, devoid of a record of service, sacrifice and a mass base, need money and muscle power to keep their positions of power and to bludgeon their constituency into submission. Criminal elements in police thrive on wrongdoings and they need someone to keep the law away from their back and heels. Once the politician reaches a particular stature and develops a clout, he dictates terms to Police and Bureaucracy much to the delight of the criminal elements. The bonds become stronger and the triads find it difficult to survive without the help of the other and the point of no return is reached.

Existing criminal laws are woefully inadequate to deal with various manifestations of organised crime. There is need for a special legislation to deal with this menace. We need special courts and suitable modifications in the Criminal Procedure to make justice swifter. A stitch in time will save nine. The inability of the criminal justice system to deal firmly with infractions like rowdyism, gambling, prostitution, drugs etc lead to development of organised crime. Yesterday’s petty criminals turn out today’s dons. Hence, the need to nip budding criminals at the early stages itself.

Police, who are the gate keepers of the mighty criminal justice system and the bureaucracy, who are the dispensers of welfare measures to the society, are at the mercy of politicians for their survival. Politician’s displeasure bring down on them harassment like frequent transfers and disruption in career advancement. Hence, they quietly toe the line of politicians. Here police and bureaucracy act as catalysts for the growth of the nexus between the politician and criminal elements. To make the police and bureaucracy people oriented and act without fear or favour, control of politicians over them should be carefully structured.

A good number of high-profile police officials are under scanner for various offenses, ranging from an alleged connection with fake stamp paper scam kingpin to much more concentrated levels. This complicity between police and underworld are more evident in land deals.

Even 6o years after independence there is widespread unrest, discontent and conflicts among a large section of the population which is leading to the threat to the rule of law in India. Due to this people are losing faith in the system, ability of law enforcement agencies to maintain order and enforce the rule of law and to provide justice. In spite of the failures and derailment of the democratic system, India has survived and made progress due to the resilience of its people.

Politicians, devoid of a record of service, sacrifice and a mass base, need money and muscle power to keep their positions of power and to bludgeon their constituency into submission. Here there are many innocent people who are held guilty only because of the malicious act of few hypocrites. Politicians have become the refuge of black marketers, corrupt and the means, to wield influence and for personal exaltation. Our leaders are law into themselves. Politician of these days are eager to use their expertise and time for nation building, in making them self rich and dominate the officials and law abiding citizens.

Criminalization of police is an extremely serious problem, which has already reached dangerous levels. Implanting mechanisms to assure accountability of the police to the public it serves did not become priority, as it should have, which creates direct affect on the rule of law. The police system should be characterized as a regime force, which places the needs of politicians or powerful individuals over the demands of the rule of law and the needs of citizens. In the performance of their duty, law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons. It requires the police to uphold the rule of law, ensure safety of citizens, be responsible, accountable and protect democratic values.

It is painful to say that the activity of the police these days are meted out against the marginalized sections of the society. Almost everywhere, minorities and vulnerable groups such as the poor and women, experience a more crushing weight of police activity.

It is well known that the democratic governance would also require that the police force, described as the most visible arm of the states authority , reflects the norms and the ethos that people perceive as aimed at their common good. It was observed in the case that the officers charged with maintenance of law and order can use only that much force as in necessary for disposal of an unlawful assembly and suppression of riot. This principle had emerged from the common law. The police, who are the gate keepers of the mighty criminal justice system and the bureaucracy, who are the dispensers of welfare measures to the society, are going to any extend of cruelty and ill deeds to amass wealth and get promotions.

It is being urged that the immediate inquiry into the activity of the police should be made so that their arbitrary action remain under control and they don’t break the order of the rule of law which has prevailed for so long period. Everyone is in rush without any kind of concern for the rest wanting to be first, whether it is on the road or in any other walk of life to carve out short cuts for them to pass through and a psyche to justify their wrongs with an expectation only for others to follow the law and wait for the day when all other subject themselves to the rule of law so that they could follow suit. There is no initiative by the government to check such a breach.

There is no love sincerer than the love of food

Patients and their relatives have decried the strike embarked upon by the Association of Doctors, which has crippled the health care services. Total compliance with the strike by the doctors, will result in the discharge of all critically ill patients from the various hospitals. All the wards in the hospital will virtually be empty but for a few patients, whose conditions are not so critical and are being attended to by other medical staff such as nurses, among others.

Patients are being made to bear the brunt of the crisis between the government and doctors which is not fair. It's irresponsibility on the part of the government and the doctors to leave patients to die and suffer. Both should live up to their responsibility by working in the interest of the masses. Why must civil servants always use strike action to press home their demand? Just look at what this warning strike embarked upon by medical doctors has caused? Some patients have died due to lack of medical care. Doctors are not supposed to embark on strike no matter what happens. Their primary duty is to save lives, money or no money.

This doesn’t mean that the government should never address doctors’ grievances. They are complaining about salaries, allowances, the state of the hospitals and the threat they are facing from the relatives of the patients.

Let's face it, the truth remains that on no account should doctors go on strike. They are life savers and not killers. Anyway, it all boils down to the fact that many of them are not called into that noble profession; they are there for the money and will take any action to get money at the drop of a hat. If one is truly a doctor, his major motivation would be to save lives.

It is agreed that they have their legitimate grouse with the state but when two elephants fight, the grass suffers. People are dying and some are in great pains waiting for doctors to alleviate the pains. They must not forget the holiness of their profession. In other climes, medical doctors are given preferential treatment in the banks, shopping malls, eateries, highways, etc because duty can call at anytime, so government should, as a matter of urgency, look into their matter at a faster pace. The doctors say the strike action is not targeted against the patient but against the government for insensitivity to their plight. That is laughable because it is the patient who bears the brunt.

One of the fundamental tenets of a national socialized health care system is that health care is a shared responsibility. As a doctor, the share of the responsibility is arguably greater than that of the average citizen. This responsibility is an inherent aspect of the Hippocratic Oath. Therefore, it is unethical for doctors to strike for financial reasons. To draw an analogy between striking doctors and other striking sections is false, and only recognizes the superficial nature of the issue. Put simply, a teacher, a clerical staff or member of any other area of work, joining a picket line may bring a temporary halt to that individual’s work, which can be compensated at a later time by working more time to make good of the loss but a doctor joining a picket line may cause irreparable injury or even death to his patients.

This opinion may seem a little melodramatic, but the point is that the pursuit of a medical career has unique challenges, rewards and burdens. When one undertakes such a responsibility, one agrees to unconditionally, provide healing for the sick, and to do no harm to the life or lives he has trusted upon. Hence striking as a doctor presents philosophical and moral inconsistencies that cannot be justified by monetary motivations. Physicians, whether they are part of a nationally-funded health-care system or some other system, function as agents to provide health care and are interested in the well-being of their patients. In addition, they play a broader social, political, and economic role as a member of an institution that is a very vital part that makes up a system. Whereas other institutions like education, social assistance, environment, finance etc. etc play a different but comparative role in that all contribute to how our society runs.

It is high time the government takes notice and does things needed at proper times to alleviate the problems of the medical practitioners and making their jobs more appealing rather than making them feel that only crying babies get the bread, then only can we save the future of the public health sector. If not, then the value of human lives is set to dip as private sectors do not function for social welfare. Health will become another commodity too expensive to attain for the underprivileged. Obviously with emergency wards being left un attended and most day to day procedures being put off indefinitely the protesting doctors are looking like villains to a lot of people as the dilemma of the Hippocratic oath versus due compensation comes into the limelight.

However people need to understand that becoming a doctor even on subsidized education received by many of these individuals in government medical colleges is a very tough road to travel. Not only does it involve so many sleepless nights spent in a very stressful and competitive academic environment and working like donkeys on house jobs with no pay at all. It is no surprise therefore that many of our post graduate doctors decide to fly to fairer shores to seek better compensation for their services. Those that stay behind are summarily reduced to working in squalor like conditions with not just the stress exerted by our emotional society in emergency situations but without the just fruits which their hard labor deserves. Let’s admit it that the present pay for post- graduate doctors is just a pitiful sum, an insult for these individuals, as private chauffeurs in their very city make equal to or more than this amount. How do we expect these individuals to lead a life worthy of their hard work and education in this sum of money?

Strikes, all over the world, are seen as a weapon of last resort, even among labour unions that have no direct links with saving human lives. With the habitual grounding of the nation’s health system, no further proof is needed to conclude that the nation’s doctors have thrown their sacred oath, which places premium on saving life, to the dogs. For instance, no fewer than 50 patients’ deaths were linked to the strike embarked upon by doctors last year.

On the onset of a medical strike hapless patients with various types of infirmities have been abandoned and mortuaries are brimming with new corpses. Hospitals have thus become dangerous for in-patients and a no-go area for emergencies. For a state, of its large population and cosmopolitan status, the implication of the ongoing crisis in the state’s public hospitals is better be imagined. The discomfiture of patients with debilitating cases is captured in the tales of woes from those concerned. It is evident that those that are worse-hit are the deprived who have no means of patronising private hospitals.

The concerned government must design a vox populi vox dei step for negotiating and implementing the present demands of the doctors. States should start asserting their independent, though coordinate status in the system and reward doctors based on their resources. When government neglects them, doctors across the country should opt for a less-disruptive means of expressing their grievances. None will benefit from the total collapse of the system or from the needless deaths of the most vulnerable in the society.

The only way therefore is the compromises made from both the government and the doctors’ side to resolve these crises. We have suffered too much already, as it is we really cannot afford a country wide medical stoppage, the results of which would be catastrophic. Basic medical care is not an unattainable luxury folks its good all of us wake up before we make it one. Doing hours of long duty under stress saving human lives is not a simple talk deal. The minimum our system can do is to provide doctors with so badly missed basics where it is thoroughly failing time and again. Imagine the situation when the doctor in operation theater faces power cut and no support back up and gets beaten up by patients’ relatives for negligence who themselves in first place may have been responsible for casual attitude and delays.

A doctor also is a human being and obviously is entitled to a safe working environment. Many patients are brought to the hospital when all hopes are lost. What is the doctor supposed to do then? They try to explain the situation, but those who accompany these patients are not ready to listen and accept the reality. Instead they start man handling the doctors and then the press is called, political parties get involved etc. What is the way out?

Once a patient is brought to the hospital, and admitted, the doctors work on him hours on end. Despite all these efforts if the patient gives in to his illness. Who is to be blamed? Is it the doctor who has done all efforts in human reach to bring the patient back to life? Is it anything beyond a doctor’s efficacy?

A person who falls sick is treated initially at home or in the neighborhood by the local quack. When the condition of the patient is totally out of control he is brought to the hospital for treatment. This patient who is in a very critical condition when admitted in the hospital, after initial life care steps, needs investigation and procedures like ECG,EEG, scans, different laboratory tests, emergency surgeries and in many cases be put on ventilator. The aide of the patient neither provides the correct and full history, which will help at least in stabilizing the patient nor is ready to give consent to any of the above procedures. They are roaming under very false notion that these primary records of procedure are licenses and gateways for the doctors to escape as if they were waiting to kill and flee. If any causality happens, the whole blame is put on the doctor. The poor fellow will be subjected to suspension, enquiry and a lot many other unnecessary and unpleasant ordeals.

Doctors work for the betterment of the patients, first and foremost they are human beings and they try to cure each patient. Make no mistake about it that when they lose a patient they lose a part of their soul, because they work hard for the patient, to give him relief from his illness.