My Musings

 Musings……. My Gandhi  Gandhiji has always been an invisible presence in my house. Or so I think !  My childhood was spent in New Delhi where I did my schooling. In our Government quarters there we used to have a huge portrait of Gandhiji. This is one of my earliest memory of Gandhi.  Coming from a Congress family ( such families are dwindling nowadays ) I was introduced very early to Gandhiji and his works.  In junior school there used to be plays where students dressed up as Gandhi and other freedom fighters and had to come up on stage to read a famous quote from these freedom fighters. I never got a chance to dress up as Gandhiji, though once I was Nehru !  Civics and History was my favourite subjects in school and the Freedom struggle was one of my favourite topics. I was so good at it that I used to wait for History class in school. On the contrary Maths was like my enemy and I dreaded Maths period.  So early on itself I was in awe of Gandhi and his heroic struggle for Freedom fro

 Musings……. Our Union Government has announced the National Digital Health Mission recently.  The most important aspect that this writer saw in the Mission is that citizens would be provided a voluntary Health ID card.  The aforementioned Health ID card will be a 14 digit number which will contain details of every hospital visit, every report, every test conducted by the person and also details of medication and treatment. Hence, this will grant the person freedom from carrying around his/her report.  The Health ID would be created using Aadhar card or Mobile number.    However, do we really require a Health ID ? What would be the cost of computerising the whole medical infrastructure in the Public system starting from the Government Medical college to the Primary health Centre uniformly all over the country ?  Not arguing that computerisation is not required, and if it happens along with this scheme, well and good.  However, are we prioritising correctly ? Does healthcare require a co

 Musings……. Afghanistan  Why no one has absolute power in Afghanistan  Since the meek and disgusting withdrawal of the USA from Afghanistan and the subsequent swift capture of power in majority of provinces, including Kabul by the Taliban, is the world seeing a major power shift ?  Also why does no one have absolute power in Adghanistan ?  Well the answer to this seems to be in the varied Ethnolinguistic groups in Afghanistan. Added to this is the topography and the challenge to guard its large borders with Iran, Pakistan, PoK, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and a small patch of land with China.  The Demography of Afghanistan population is as follows -  - [ ] Pashtun (42%) - The Pashtuns majorly occupy the Eastern and Western Afghanistan, the Paghman valley, Badakhshan and Herat.  Major Pashtun leaders include Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Gul Agha Sherzai and Abdul Rab Sayyaf. All Pashtun leaders have good relations with Pakistan apparently and not so cordial with India.  - [ ] Tajik ( 2

 Musings……. Bhagwan Krishnan  Like every child born into a early 90s Kerala, myself grew up hearing stories from mythology, and like most children I was mesmerised and was at awe. One of the reasons for my reading habit I will attribute to my keen interest in mythology.  Armed with the imagination of a child, my limits were boundless. Besides reading, A huge part of my appetite for mythology was fulfilled through the Mahabharata Serial which aired every Sunday mornings in Doordarshan.  Among all these characters ,needless to say my favourite was Lord Krishna.  From being a naughty child to growing up to become one of the most talented warriors the world has ever seen, I listened with fascination to Krishna’s deeds and his mischiefs.  There are many facets to Lord Krishna as far as my limited understanding tells me -  The rishis called him he full embodiment of the divine, the totality, because all that a human could be is in Krishna.  He is simultaneously a teacher, lover, friend, poli

 Musings....... Long Covid  The unpredictability of Covid symptoms is a matter of concern for patients as well as the medical community alike. The general symptoms include body ache, fatigue, headache, fever, loss of smell, taste and breathlessness.  It is being now increasingly seen that many patients now experience extended symptoms even after 14 days - the average time it takes for body to fight off the virus.  Patients may develop symptoms even 6months to 1 year after recovery. This is known as Long Covid.  According to ICMR, if a person has symptoms 4-12 weeks after testing negative for Covid, it should be treated as post-Covid Syndrome ( PCS).  If after 12 weeks symptoms continue to reappear, patient should do an RT-PCR test.  If positive then they are reinfected with Covid.  If negative, then it should be treated as Long Covid.  Two important pathogenic mechanisms of Covid are -  - [ ] Inflammation -  Inflammation is a natural Process by which the body reacts to or fights off in