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Showing posts from December, 2005

happy new year 2006

Another year will roll by in few hours. as the twilight of this year sets in a mix of happenings, incidents and experiences drive the message forward that reinforces my beliefs, attitudes shaped over last few years. and has been a eternal guiding factor throughout my journey. Life is short.... in fact not just short but whole lot unpredictable so let me break all the possible rules after all most of these rules were imposed by others without my concurrance ostensibily to benefit me I must continue with the act of forgiveness but should add this year a temporal dimension of doing it quickly I must love truly unabashedly without inhibition and laugh uncontrollably on those childish, sillly comments and observations of others and mine the art that I have ensconced and treasured and yes I should never regret anything that has made me smile in past one year After all I am looking forward to the new year for a new start of my old beliefs, attitudes in the words of Tennyson R

lifelong dedication

Early morning air at Delhi’s pragati maidan is chill, crisp, and clear. He is also fresh, enthusiastic and his body movement reflects his efficiency. However, as the day approaches to early noon, scenario dramatically changes. Combination of old and new cars, scooters with the straddled three passengers, trucks stuffed with turbaned laborers, bicycles, rickshaw pullers, bullock carts and most important of all cows, all fight desperately for space, jostling with each other and blowing their horns or shouting like mad. They turn this tranquil early morning traffic junction into chaotic miasma. Amidst all this, master of this junction is trying his best to orchestrate the chaos into semblance of some orderly cacophony. Dust, sweat, carbon monoxide fumes are slowly filling up every pore of his lungs. His swift limbs do not have the same vigor of the morning but they have not become docile either. Only sign visible on his face is that of irritation when he sees commuters are not obeying

India's struggle with Hygeine

An average person visits the toilet 2500 times a year. About 6-8 times a day,we end up in spending about 3 years of our life in the toilet. This is what I learnt from WTO (World toilet organization) website. WTO celebrate November 19th as World Toilet day. The purpose of this day is to have people to increase awareness of toilet user's right to a better toilet environment, and to demand for it from the toilet owners. It's high time that average Indian should demand a basic if not better toilet from their civic rulers. If we look at Indian statistics, only 30 percent of India's 1 Billion population have bathrooms in their homes or easy access to public toilets. No more than 250 of the country's 4,000 cities and towns have sewer systems and many of those systems do not have treatment plants. In Mumbai, situation is acute with nearly 50 % population living in slums that have no toilets in their homes. The British built the first sewerage system in India in 1870. After 130

sudan : oppressive environ bordering on opulence

I am always curious to visit countries that are slammed by Americans. Here was a chance to see another country without any American fast food joints and stores selling American brands. After being to Syria, Iran, Yemen now was the turn to visit Sudan. I had no idea what to expect in Sudan. My first lesson of Sudan came from a UK man sitting next to my seat. He was working as a specialist in water management for NGO as a part of UN project in Darfur – violence infected western part of Sudan. This lesson was supplemented by another Indian standing in the immigration queue that marked ‘Non Sudanese’. He was a Gujarati, born in Sudan with Sudanese nationality but for obvious reasons carries Indian passport whenever travels abroad. By the time I had my entry stamp on my passport; I was acquainted with few facets of Sudan – one of them was that Sudanese are friendly people despite being ruled by military regime. Immigration staff did not carry any air of arrogance. I could virtually stand n

look who is staring

Steve Waugh in his upcoming autobiography mentions about staring passion of Indians. He remarks that if there is an Olympic event for staring, the Indians would win the gold hands down. How correct he is in observing this trait of Indians. In India, most woman if they are white skinned foreigners are subjected to continuous stare. If she is new to the country, she would wonder if something is wrong with her attire or face, but as she gets accustomed to staring conditions, she realizes this is the norm. Indians alone dont take honours in this unique attribute, most of the subcontinent people including middle east are prone to this. Is it something to do with inquistiveness or innate talent of being curious ? Here is a list of people and things that we stare at. Foreigners (especially whites and Africans) Film actors and these days TV serial performers Teenagers in the neighbourhood Women in general (only men) Women in jeans and tops Women wearing heavy make-up Women wearing

Kidney Transplant Program in Iran

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Recent Advances in Renal Transplantation meeting was first in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It did not offer much in terms of clinical information compared to Ahmedabad meeting but the fact that it allowed discussion on cadaver and live donor transplant under ethical and religious lines was itself encouraging. Another sign of changing times? Nearly 600 Saudi patients underwent kidney transplant but nearly 2/3rd of them did so outside the country. Bulk of them did from Pakistan and Egypt. What impressed me most was to know about Renal Transplant protocol in Iran. Despite being large size country with 70 Million population. they do not have any patient waiting for kidney transplant; something that even developed country has not achieved it. They have most successful transplant program that has alleviated sufferings of renal failure patients in Iran is indeed thought provoking. Their success is now termed as ‘Iranian Model’ and is cited in major journals. Few of the salient points of Irani

Visit to Riyadh under new regime

As I was about to keep my bags for x ray screening at the customs of Riyadh airport, I realized my carrying computer CD in my bag. I was dessparated to avoid being caught by customs authorities and being stranded at the airport while they take their own time to check the contents. I looked around for any camera while I did my best to shove it in my trousers pocket. It turned out to be too big for the size of my pocket and I decided to leave it inside the bag to face the ordeal. But I was in for surprise; customs either didn’t notice that or just were generous to let me pass without even opening my bag. I was received by my Filipino colleague from our distributor who was also waiting to receive customers from army establishment from Jeddah - Filipino woman nurse and Saudi male officer. It was another surprise for me to learn that we would all be going in a single car . I could realize a glee on my friend’s face of having a woman nurse next to him while driving us from airport to the hot