Two sides of a coin

     There is always some reaction for action..We have black and white..We have left and right..There is a plus for every minus..Ups and downs..There are only two sides of a coin..We have Vishnu : the creator and Shiv : the destroyer...World is divided in two forces..The good and the evil... Although this good and evil is not absolute..Its relative,For what I see as good may be evil for someone else...It depends on what side of mirror you are looking at..There is always a contrast between two,a never ending conflict..Each one wants to destroy the other...Yet they don't know that they are complementary to each other..One can't survive without the other... Can there be just one side of a coin??? No!!!!...These two must co exist..That's the law of universe...

 What if a balance could be achieved...A middle point between the two..A point which is nearer to good but farther to evil...However hard we try, we can never reach absolute goodness, for that is against the law of nature...We can only reach at some point in the middle...By staying at middle,nature ensures that the evil persist along with the good...One point to be noted here is that evil is not as in some bad sense, it's something opposite to good...Just like socialism and capitalism,good for some people,bad for others..We can't say for sure whether socialism is good or capitalism is good or the other one is evil..They are just two different entities...We must understand this fact to be at peace with everything....An understanding that what we consider evil may be good also with some other perspective some criticism is bound to come with every applause..    

Let Arvind Kejriwal breathe in fresh air

Arvind Kejriwal is having a tough time nowadays...Whatever he speaks becomes the headline of all newspapers next day...Whatever he does, becomes a discussion topic in the political circle...With all this popularity, comes lots of criticism and scrutiny which he has to tolerate...It's been just one week of him coming to power and he has been thrashed multiple times by the "intellectuals" and our ever active social media... Most of these criticizers are young people who want to see Narendra Modi as the next PM..They were very happy before Delhi elections with Modi creating waves of anti Congress politics and establishing himself as the most probable and most capable PM candidate... But Delhi election results and the politics which followed afterwards has swept the sleep away from their eyes... The rising of one common man to the supreme post of capital has threatened their dream of Modi becoming a PM...The kind of support Kejriwal is getting from the people is only too obvious to ignore as the local Delhi phenomena... He has completed his two major promises made in manifesto within 4 days of coming to power... Whole nation has its eyes set on Arvind Kejriwal and craving for similar governance in their state too... The demand of cheaper electricity in Maharashtra,200 rs discount on electricity bills in Haryana, Refusing government bunglow by CM of Rajasthan are a few example of  THE KEJRIWAL EFFECT ... Suddenly everyone wants to give up VIP culture and want to live like a common man...These are all clear indicators that hoards of people, who were Modi fans may turn to Arvind Kejriwal in LS polls considering his growing popularity...

What do you do when someone whom you never considered your competition stands high and threatens your lifetime dream ?? You start doing everything possible to suppress him...That's precisely what, these Modi fans are doing....They are thrashing Kejriwal's every decision... Making big deal out of petty issues like govt vehicle and govt flat... It's like Kejriwal is supposed to be perfect with everything, everytime...He is not allowed to reconsider his options..He is supposed to make Delhi like Singapore overnight... He is supposed to please everyone , everyday and every moment...

Guys, Arvind Kejriwal is also a human being...He can also make mistakes, whatever little thing is labeled as mistake in his case... No policy of him or any other party for that matter can please poor, middle class and riches equally...His govt is new and is in dire need of making decisions independently without the fear of being judged critically...He can not be expected to deliver overnight as all policies take time to bring change...
Govt vehicle, govt bunglow, security etc are his personal preferences and should not be taken as an indicator for his character...Narendra Modi also lives in govt bunglow, enjoys three tier security and works from a swanky office, still he makes good decisions... So what, if Kejriwal also uses these facilities which are his constitutional right anyway... Using govt facilities doesn't undermine his potential of running Delhi at a better pace than previous...
  Who can be a better PM, Modi or Kejriwal is another topic for another time...I personally favor Modi but that doesn't mean I have to do Kejriwal bashing everytime... It is good luck of mother India that two good leaders are there to serve her at the same time... National politics is far different from state politics...My choice for my PM may be completely different but till then, I support Arvind Kejriwal for he is doing a good job in Delhi...I also demand fellow citizens to stop criticizing Kejriwal and observe him for few months to see his impact and outcome in Delhi... Let AAP breathe in fresh air for sometime..

Euthanasia or mercy killing must be made legal

3 weeks have passed since I have started working in Delhi State Cancer Institute, an apex hospital for treatment of all types of cancers... All kind of cancer patients come here, some at milder treatable stage but mostly at untreatable terminal stage.. These patients know that they are going to die and are waiting for the Lord to call them at His heavenly abode.. These patients in their final days have to experience burning hell in living form...They have severe pain all over the body which can't be relieved with strongest medicines.. Their mildest movement such as raising hands or shifting an inch on bed evokes pain which make them cry whole night.. They bleed in their cough, urine, faeces or external tumor heavily..Sometimes they are not able to defaecate and an opening has to be made through stomach to let the faeces out...They can't feed through mouth, so another opening has to be made in stomach to feed them..With every night their Haemoglobin falls and their kins have to donate blood to make them going for another day.. Psychologically such patient are completely broken and are nothing more than a breathing wax doll... For their kins and family , it's equally difficult...Apart from the pain of seeing your loved one writhing in pain, it's economically draining as well..Life for them comes at a halt with frequent hospital visits, hospital admissions and nursing care given to the patient..Witnessing so much human pain,misery and disfigurement of human body shook my soul and changed my whole perspective regarding life and death..That is, when I am a distant unrelated person, just an attending doctor...The kind of pain their kin, family and friends feel is beyond imagination...

      Life is considered a beautiful gift from the Lord to us, to be cherished and to be enjoyed in a manner fruitful to family and society...Every attempt must be made to preserve life and to maintain it's quality...No one else understands this better than us, the doctors...But what happens when living life becomes worse than dying...When the mother who couldn't bear the mildest wound on her son's body gets so fed up with the writhing pain of her son, that she wishes him to die soon but painless... Here comes the role of mercy killing or euthanasia...
  For the benefit of non medico readers let me give you an overview of euthanasia... Euthanasia or mercy killing is giving painless death to the patients in terminal diseases for whom there are no chances of survival...It can also be given for patients of complete paralysis and coma in whom the quality of life is so miserable that death may be desired instead... It can be Active euthanasia in which sleep and then death inducing injection is given or Passive euthanasia in which no injection is given but all supporting equipments like ventilators, oxygen etc is withdrawn...Any of these methods are not permitted legally in our nation, but is permitted in many other countries...

  Having said that, it's obvious that patients, their family and doctors are helpless in such situation and have to go through this living hell till death takes it's course...Efforts have been made by some patients, their relatives, NGOs to make euthanasia legal but none has borne any fruit yet...
  The biggest argument given by anti euthanasia lobby is that such law can be misused to kill healthy people in a corrupt country like ours...Secondly ethical issues regarding right of life are also there...
   I just want to say that a strong law without any loopholes must be made regarding this and euthanasia must be made legal..A few suggestions to prevent it's misuse are as following:
- Only one apex institute/hospital in each state may be licensed to certify that patient's disease is untreatable and quality of life even with treatment is extremely poor to be called humane..
- A minimum of three or more senior doctors from different specialties are required to verify terminal stage of disease..
-In case where patient can himself give consent, his consent should be obtained after proper psychiatric counseling + consent of spouse/two blood relatives must be obtained...
- In case where patient is in coma and can't give consent, then consent of minimum two first degree blood relatives + spouse must be mandatory..
- Adequate counseling through NGO, volunteer groups and support groups must be provided to patients and relatives beforehand..
- Any proven misuse of euthanasia must be dealt with severe punishments including but not limited to prison..
- Similar to right of life, there must be a right to death as well where each person should have a right of dignified, painless and peaceful death...

Hoping for euthanasia law to come into existence as soon as possible..We can not give such unfortunate patients new life, atleast we should be able to give them peaceful death..Many of us intellectuals wouldn't share this viewpoint of mine but the one who goes through this dirty game of life and death knows the best..In my experience which is 1-2 deaths everyday, at some point of time almost every patient or relative demanded some form of mercy killing in their last days... Some even wanted it to be done "off the records".. A law abiding doctor couldn't do it even when a human being inside him wanted to...I just want this conflict to end and be able to provide painless and peaceful death "on the records"..