Lucky us . . .

Today morning, I read an article about cost of medical graduate studies in the United States. 

That was the time, I thought about calculating how much I had spent for my studies in Medical College, Trivandrum. I was a day-scholar. The total costs did not cross 40,000 INR (approximately 1000 USD according to exchange rates at that time). 

That was 1995-2001. 

I thought about looking at latest costs. My colleague, Dr. Titus had done his MBBS during 2005-11. The total costs just crossed 100,000 INR (approximately 2000 USD according to exchange rates then).

Well, I need not voice it out. 

One can only think about the umpteen number of MBBS graduates from third world countries such as India who have enriched healthcare in countries such as the US. And of course, the umpteen come from the sparse numbers who pass out of Medical Colleges in such countries. 

The sad question is - 'At whose expense?' 

And considering the article, the graduates from the developing countries have a head start to the American graduates who are deep in debt when they start their career in medicine. 

I could be prejudiced by the article I mentioned. Would value enlightenment if I'm wrong. 

Warning signs . . . from the sky

I chanced on the snaps below while surfing the net. No doubt, they are really beautiful. But, I also realised that the snaps also show some aspects which the country would need to take care of. 

The above snap was touted as the snap of India on Diwali night. However, that was not the case as the article in The Hindu said. 

Below is a snap of the forest and the mineral wealth of the country.

Now if you look carefully at the composite picture of the night sky of the country, please note where the coloured lights come in. According to the article in The Hindu -

- Blue lights indicate city lights that became visible in 1992

- Green lights indicate city lights that became visible in 1998

- Red lights indicate city lights that became visible in 2003

And please re-look at where our mineral wealth and more importantly forest cover of our country is. Yes, it is in these regions that we've been having population influx and growth as the years pass by, except for the North East part of the country. 

Isn't this something which should be of a concern to us?

You can see the beautiful snaps from space of other countries at IBN Live and Earth at Night: 30 Photos from Space. 

Bicholia .. .. ..

Most of you would not know what this means . . .

Bicholia . . . This is the local terminology which is used in this part of the country for middlemen. 

We see quite a lot of them everyday. Of course, one could argue that you find them in various forms in different parts of the country. We call them by various names . . . lobbyist in the government, middlemen in business etc. 

However, bicholias here are of a different type. 

The major thing being they exploit the poor. 

We have a very sick eclampsia patient in Acute Care. It's been couple of days since she was brought in. And she was well into a HELLP Syndrome when we admitted here. We thought about delivering her by Cesarian section if we got at least 3 pints of blood. 

The family being poor . . . that was a huge ask. However, someone helped them to arrange one pint of blood. But that came after 24 hours of admission. 

We have already induced her twice, but without any result. Today evening, I've started to induce labour for the third time. 

However, as I reached the Acute Care before I left hospital, there was this well off person who was showing off . . . talking loud . . . and making a scene of what we were doing with PrD. I explained that we've already told the family to take her to a higher centre. Then, he took out the slip which we wrote for obtaining blood couple of days back and asked me whether he could do something to bring the three pints. 

I told him it is too late now as the condition of the patient has worsened. 

I asked him who he was. The usual answer of a bicholi . . .'I happened to find this poor family trying to find some help. So, I thought about helping them out.' 

The rates can be as low as 100 INR to as high as 10% of expenses involved. We find the latter when the 'bicholia' gets involved in getting a charity written from the hospital. 

We've enough reasons to suspect that many of the 'bicholias' get involved in some form of bonded labourer especially when the poor cannot pay the 'service rates'.

By the way, it is not alone in hospitals such as ours that we find these middlemen. I understand that there are major players who work in the banks and other government offices. 

As part of the community development work we do, we're involved with Self Help Groups. Recently, when we wanted to facilitate obtaining bank loans, we found out that it can only be done through 'bicholis'. The rates they were asking were humongous.

For a loan of 200,000 INR, one has to pay as high as 40,000 to 60,000 INR. 

And it is so rampant . . . 

Of course, I feel that this is one of the major reasons that many of the well meant government schemes do not reach the real. 

There are no easy answers on how to tackle this menace . . . but I hope that this will be open the eyes of people in 'INDIA' about the travails of the populace of 'BHARAT'.   

Straight Hair ! ! !

I see people with straight hair quite often . . . rather young children. And it’s not only straight hair they have . . . the hair would be quite colourful. Colourful . . . well, that would depend on how you see it.

Medical textbooks describe such children as having straight and hypopigmented hair with interspersed areas of reddish brown. Quite an uneviable design for your hair. Of course, the downside is that the hair would be a bit brittle, dry and easily pluckable. However, that’s if you touch it. Who bothers to touch nowadays. It’s the view that matters.

Couple of weeks back, I had such a boy in my outpatient department. 

It was quite obvious that he had kwashiorkar – a form of malnutrition which we commonly see in this part of the country. A malnutrition which occurs because of a diet deficient in protein.

We’ve had a statement from the Prime Minister of the country that malnutrition is a national shame. It seems that 42% of the children of our country are malnourished in some form or the other. In my state, Jharkhand, the percentage of stunted children is a shameful 57%.  

Quite difficult to believe this when you know that this is the same country that on a regular basis sends satellites to space . . . our engineers are the most sought after in Silicon valley . . . our cricketers are World Cup class . . .

Well, the next time, you go to some of the poorer areas of our towns or cities, be on the watchout for kids on the street . . . begging or loitering around. Look at their hair. They would have straight hair. It may look unkempt. But, it would be straight.

I’ve googled a picture and put in here . . . I'm sure you noticed the picture of the child in my post mentioned above. Not a difficult thing to achieve for a lower middle class family. 

And can you believe it? We’ve people who would end up spending quite a lot of money to have hair such as this . . .when one can have such hair by cutting down on your food intake. The downside is that is you could have some side-effects like a bit of bloating, a cramping pain in your tummy because of the hunger and some skin changes.

Well, with the increase in cost of living and easy availability of junk foods, I would not be much surprised if I find quite a lot of our folk with straight hair caused by poor nutrition.

This post is in response to a blog writing contest arranged by Sunsilk on the straight hair experiment.