Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Sad.. Really Sad.

A patient suffering from kidney failure manages to reach the hospital gates on time but ends up losing his life because he fails to get ‘into’ the hospital on time. And this is because he has to respect and live with the security measures taken to protect our prime minister, who happened to be attending a convocation ceremony in the very same hospital. Yes, this is a news we all woke up to last week and as ridiculous as it sounds, this is something that we live through in India and probably don’t even care to do anything about it.

Obviously, the security of the prime minister is definitely a matter of huge concern, especially in a country with a history of two assassinated PM s (Interestingly one by her own bodyguards), but what is the point if this is done at the expense of someone else’s life? Whoever it is, a VIP or a common man, the loss of a life causes the same kind of grief to his/her family. Although in case of the former, you may be able to see a more elaborate version of the happenings in the papers compared to the latter. It was rather surprising to see that more importance was given to the details of the apology letter the PM sent to the grieving family rather than the actual loss of life.

It is indeed a privilege to receive your degree from the Prime minister of your country but was it really necessary to hold the function in the hospital itself when it is obvious that the security could hinder the normal functioning of the hospital?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a news in similar lines in the papers days from now. Because, all the sympathies, apologies and blame games for the lost life is over in a week and everyone’s ready to forget it.
I sometimes don’t understand the unnecessary attention and importance given to VVIPs in our country.

This post is a tribute to the bereaved family.

Just hoping that incidents like these wont happen again. A mere hope.

A link to the news: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/PMs-security-claims-patients-life/articleshow/5194254.cms

Sunday, November 1, 2009

GO GO GO!!!!!!!!!



I often like to think of myself as a “superhero” woman, kinda like a Charlies angel or a powerpuff girl- fighting crime and arresting the bad guys and all that. I got an opportunity to be one recently but damn! I wasn’t that great at it.


I was coming back from work one day. I drive my bike from home to the bus stop as it’s about a km away. I was riding back home on my bike when I was stopped by a girl, probably my age. She jumped right in front of my scooter and obviously I had to stop. She seemed completely hysterical and was talking over the phone in telugu which I obviously dint understand a word of. I wondered what her problem was and why she stopped my bike. Well, I dint have to think for long about that cos the next thing she did was jump onto my scooter as pillion without even bothering to ask and asked me to drive!


Well, now I started getting a bit worried especially cos suddenly the news of the abolition of sec 377 of our penal code in the papers jus flashed in front of my eyes again! What the hell did she want???? For a moment I thought that all my worst fears about the new act were coming true.


Again, I dint get much time to think about what was going on. She said “GO GO GO.. A guy snatched my bag and he went that way!!”. Phew! Honestly I was happy to hear that...hear that it was only that. Still in a trance I drove in the direction she pointed at to “chase the guy who snatched her bag” (What was I thinking!). This happened like a 15 seconds drive away from my home. Just as I took the turn to the lane where my home is, we saw a guy on a bike taking the next turn and disappearing from our view. This mysterious girl sitting behind me yelled “That’s the guy. Follow him!!” All this while, she was calling different people over the phone and telling them that her bag was stolen (Again, I dint understand a word she said but I presume that’s what she said cos you generally don’t call up people at such times and talk about the cute guy next door)


Suddenly I felt like this superhero Charlie’s angel and I drove fast to chase this guy. As I raced past my house or rather the sight of my house woke me up from my daze and my brain started working again. “OMG what the hell are you doing chasing a guy on a bike!” I told this girl that it wasn’t really a good idea for us (2 girls- oh yeah I’m strong but this girl was a skinny little insect) to chase a guy on a bike. She wasn’t ready to listen though. Then I told her it would be dangerous if he was armed. Man! it was tough convincing her but after listening to a bunch of my made up scary stories, she finally agreed .


I enquired what she had in the bag and she started listing them out in this exact same order
1. A lunch box
2. A water bottle
3. A notepad and pen
4. Around 150 Rupees in cash
5. I was eagerly waiting for her to talk about a credit/debit card in her list..... but the last thing she said was a pack of biscuits!!


Now, that wasn’t funny. She made me take out all the valour I had in me to get a bag with a bunch a stupid stuff and 150 bucks! I’m so glad I dint follow him further. But out of curiosity, I asked her where she keeps her cards. She said she never carries her cards in her purse and that she only carries money!!!! (with a dumb smile)


Initially I thought she was being stupid but after hearing this I felt pretty stupid myself and felt sympathy for the guy who managed to steal her bag! He probably would bring it back and give her some money seeing the pathetic state of her purse.


Anyway let’s see the good in it.... ahhhhh theres pretty much no good in this one. Jus managed to get a blog post out of it. Fair enough!