"Brain drain" or "Drain drain" ?

My friend Joe mailed in to comment on my previous post “Should Indian Doctors emigrate?” As usual he will have his own arguments which will never go in tune with mine.

His immediate cynical response was “What brains you are talking about??” He continued to mention “we have cheap labor and that’s it, nothing more. When thousands of people emigrate you bound to see one or two successes. That is comparable to the statistics of any other country’s emigrating population…….” Concluding it by “Don’t worry about this ‘Brain drain’, what’s happening is only ‘Drain drain’ :) :) :) “

I’m still worried. The drain you are talking about is getting drained at the cost of my tax money. ....... :) :)

Seeji

Should Indian Doctors emigrate?

This is one question which I always find difficult to take a stand on. It is little easier to take a stand when you reframe the question “Should Indian doctors emigrate after studying in the Indian tax payer’s money?”

This week’s Shashi Tharoor’s column in ‘The Hindu’ deals with this issue. He questions “Should the Indian Government continue to subsidise medical education?”. A very basic question indeed.





He has supported the engineers & management graduates by saying

“…..The old fears of a "brain drain" seemed to me to have been supplanted by
hopes of a "brain gain", as desi software designers and high-tech gurus from
Silicon Valley have opened thriving firms in India, employing their countrymen
and women, increasing the country's export revenues and pumping up the national
GDP….”

Then I should ask “How many of them?”. If the IT boom which started here by the resident Indians was not there, would they have mind to come down here?. I don’t find any difference between a NRI coming to India for opening a firm and Microsoft coming to India. Both of them are here for business and for cheap labour. That’s it. How justified it is to blame Doctors alone when even IITians & IIM guys have studied with the same tax payers money causing a big hole in their pockets.

Having said that, I am not supporting the idea of funding someone’s education, only to see him going abroad and making money. There should be strict legislature of a bond to work in home country atleast for specified years after completion. That is not a very difficult legislature to bring in. That should be applied to Doctors as well as Engineers.

Apart from this basic question, Mr Tharoor also gives a strange picture where Indian doctors are ready to serve the poor at remote places of US but not the same poor in India who are in much needy position.

“Towns like Welch, populated largely by the very poor and the often sick,
have little appeal for American doctors whose principal objective is to earn
back the quarter of a million dollars they have spent on their medical
education. …….. Fifteen of the 19 doctors in the town hospital were from abroad,
including India.”

Situation is not that gloomy, as recent evidences show a reverse brain drain in medical fraternity. But there is a huge rise in number of young medical students moving abroad looking for higher pays, better career and better life. This may have been resulted because of minimal number of post graduate seats not catering to the thousands of graduates coming out, rampant illogical reservation system, a very low pay package compared to other professions. But they should not be the excuses for someone to burden the taxpayer

Mail me your views at drprasannacg[at]gmail[dot]com

Seeji.

Back to 'Andaman'

Hi,

If you have observed my ‘Current Reading List’, the autobiography of Conrad Hilton, “Be my Guest” is there for very long time. This is unusually long, coz I often complete reading a book at a stretch of 3-4 days. Very few books have tested my patience. I can give the example of “The monk who sold his Ferrari” which took months. That was the last “self-help” book I picked up and I developed hatredness towards that genre of ‘personality development books’ after reading it.




Unlike Robin Sharma's book, “Be my Guest” is superbly written, a rarity in the genre of ‘Autobiographies’. The Life of Conrad Hilton is so much adventurous and you get excited while reading every phase of his life. It also feels like, you can’t put down the book while reading. I can say, If I didn’t know about Conrad ‘Connie’ Hilton, someone could have passed it to me as a thrilling fiction. It has thrilling sequences, family emotions, Faith, Romance and a constant touch of humor throughout. Still, for some obscure reasons I am yet to complete it. (I can blame my busy schedule). Last 20-30 pages are still waiting to be read.




Last evening, I found a book of Tejaswi. My friend was reading it when I visited him. It was like finding a treasure. You don’t happen to see your favourite Kannada books in Tamil Land everyday. I almost snatched it from him and gave “Be my Guest” a rest . ‘Alemariya Andaman & Mahanadi Nile’ from Tejaswi. This particular book is not a very famous work of Tejaswi compared to ‘Karvalo’. ‘Parisarada Kathe’, ‘Annana Nenapu’ etc. Being the first Tejaswi book I read in my childhood, this denotes a remarkable phase in my life. After reading this I was hooked to ‘Travelogues’ . I read obsessively “Lakshadweepadalli Lekakaru”, “Americadalli Goruru” and many others. It was also the starting point of reading ‘Tejaswi’. Now I can proudly say, I have read most of the literary works of Tejaswi. Not once but repeatedly.

I have never visited Andaman in my lifetime. But I know each & every place there, the people there, the tribal society, their stories, the marine life there and hundreds of other stuff. Courtesy Tejaswi. Hence this is a repeat trip of Andaman now. This time “Alemariya….” marks my fourth reading of the book. Hopefully I will come up with a review of both the above-mentioned books sooner. Wait for them.

Seeji.

Remembering the HIV Medics of Libya on World AIDS Day

Hi ,

Note: This post was originally posted in my other blog Pharm House, which I am cross posting here

When the world observes World AIDS Day and concerns coming from everywhere about the depressing statistics, I want to go tangentially and write on a different issue of high concern.

I want to write about the 'Tripoli Six', Six medics in Libya's prison who are waiting for the final verdict on December 19. The trial of five Bulgarian nurses and One Palastenian doctor ended earlier this november and the verdict is awaited. They had missed previous conviction of sentence to death in 2005 after pressure from the scientific community around the world. Worst part is that they are in prison since 1999 and waiting for justice.




Nature in its September issue, strongly condemned the General Gaddafi's (Libyan President) attempt to scapegoat the inocent medics. Nature in its 'news section', regularly followed the proceedings of the Tripoli trial.

Nature's strong editorial titled 'Libyan Travesty', reads

Imagine that five American nurses and a British doctor have been detained and
tortured in a Libyan prison since 1999, and that a Libyan prosecutor called at
the end of August for their execution by firing squad on trumped-up charges of
deliberately contaminating more than 400 children with HIV in 1998. Meanwhile,
the international community and its leaders sit by, spectators of a farce of a
trial, leaving a handful of dedicated volunteer humanitarian lawyers and
scientists to try to secure their release.

Implausible? That scenario, with the medics enduring prison conditions
reminiscent of the film Midnight Express, is currently playing out in a Tripoli
court, except that the nationalities of the medics are different. The nurses are
from Bulgaria and the doctor is Palestinian.

The case is politically embarrassing for Gaddafi. Finding a scapegoat is easier
than having to admit that the infection of the children was an accidental
tragedy. But the most likely diplomatic compromise — that the medics will be
condemned to death, with this being commuted to a life sentence — is
unacceptable. They are innocent, and the law and science can prove it, if they
get the belated opportunity.

The scientific community has also been relatively silent on the case, perhaps in
the hope that it would be sorted out by diplomacy. But the latter has not proved
to be the case, and scientific leaders need to use all their influence urgently,
as the fate of the medics will be sealed in the coming weeks. It is time not
only to save the doctor and nurses, but also to defend a common vision of
science and law in establishing the truth, above all other imperatives.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi has the opportunity to put this affair behind him by giving
the six an immediate pardon.

................

Richard J Roberts, 1993 Nobel laurette in Medicne heading a team of 113 other fellow Nobel laurettes wrote an open letter to General Gaddafi showing their concern for the medics.

Strangely enough, the efforts from the US & UK are not impressive till date. Both US and EU had several opportunities in resolving this issue. Unfortunately this plight of medics was not in their priority list.

On this World AIDS Day 2006, I keep my fingers crossed for the acquittal of those innocents. Let us hope for a just verdict on December 19. I will update you on this.

Seeji.

Trivia section:

The theme for World AIDS Day 2006 remains 'Stop AIDS. Keep the promise.' It focuses on keeping commitments to stop AIDS at all levels: personal, community, organisational and governmental.

Do you know the count !!!!??? 40 million and ticking, with India contributing a significant fraction.....!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahem...

About Journals, 'cutting edge' (?) doctors and other 'bakwas'...... Vol 1

Hi,

I know it is really loooooong loooooong time since I wrote a blog entry. What can I do? I had nothing to say all these days. I spent such uninteresting days in the recent past.

This post is to let you know of a milestone. I got my first publication in an indexed journal. [Applause…Itz OK, sit down, I didn’t ask for a standing ovation :) ]. Though it is an insignificant trifle for lakhs of people around hanging out in Science, it is indeed special for me.

The word ‘Scientific Journal’ takes me back to my UG days. I remember hearing to that word in one of those introductory lectures in my medical school. I was all ears and gleaming eyes. If I look back now, introductory lectures are the few lectures in my whole med school life where I was really concerned about what was being said. Well, that Prof was saying something like this “… By just reading textbooks, notes you may pass… But to get the feel of Medicine you should go (Of course, to Library) & read Journal articles. Then you will come to know the cutting edge research… blah, blah…and Medicine will become your life…. blah, blah…”. Promptly the next hour I was in the journal section of our Library building. I picked something like PNAS (Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences) and tried to go through. To my horror, it was Greek & Latin for me. I didn’t get the Head & Tail of that journal. I curiously observed, that pages started somewhere from 6000+. I was little bemused coz till that day all my books or the regular monthly had pages starting from 1,2,3…. After that I stayed out of the Library building itself. No, not because of the scary journals, but because of the ragging scare. Library was serving as fishing net to catch unsuspecting juniors and I was fed up with all that singing, dancing & stripping.

After some 5-6 months, when the ragging problems settled down, I found myself again in that ‘Journal section’. This time the Journal I picked was comparatively readable (I think it was BMJ). Within minutes few ‘cool’ seniors entered grinning and stood next to me. “Kyon bacchhu, pagal ho gaya kya? Pass hone ka iraada nahin hain?….. jaake Chaurasia pado.. aagaya saala scientist ban ne”.. [For the uninitiated, Chaurasia is a book on anatomy, which is an unimaginably simplified book for a very complex subject]. I still remember… one of the senior ‘S’ asked me to read up “The Breast” chapter in one hour and to explain him later.[ Incedently that chap became closer in the later years and turned out to be a big screw ball fellow. He never grew beyond that chapter…. :) ].

Hmm, that was the end to my journal reading and becoming a ‘cutting edge’ doctor. I never entered that place again except for few quick naps coz that was relatively silent & less crowded area (If you can call one or two as crowd). Sooner I joined the league of ‘cool’ seniors promptly sending away the ‘interested juniors’ from that section.

[To be continued….]

Reflections on the 26th anniversary of my Birth

Caution : This post is a self-indulging one… Read it at your risk.

The other day was my birthday. I did cross the times long back when birthday was a long awaited event. There were lots of things to hope for. Not to forget every birthday’s common resolution “will study well from tomorrow, be good to everyone, watch less TV, read less novels and stop *#$@&%$ blah blah ”. It was also painfully true that I would be back to the routine in matter of few days. No wonder I would await for December 31st with the same set of resolutions. Still Birthdays meant a lot. It was fun. Friends, small parties, get together, temple, parents, resolutions, and a definite entry in a vastly ill maintained diary.

Now a B’day is just another day except for it is an aching reminder of the time whizzing fast and you getting lost somewhere. That’s how the 26th anniversary of my birth (That sounds cool, rather than calling it a simple Birthday…) came up to me the other day.

Everyone messaged me, mailed me, called me, kicked me and asked the same question of how r you celebrating? ... C’mon guys, Why the hell? What is special with 26th ? If it was 12th I would be dreamy eyed of entering much hyped teen-age ( Though my teen-age went down without a flicker… L), If it was 18th I had much to hope for, I will be legally eligible to watch A rated movies and discuss them (Due to my small frame, I was hesitant to go for one, thinking that ticket vendor may ask for a ‘date of birth’ certificate. When I finally made it many more years later, I realized the ultimate truth of every teenager,….“wall posters are way better than the actual movies”.. ). Also at 18, I would be eligible ‘to vote’ and elect the same, irritatingly stereotypic, hopelessly predictive our great ‘neta’s. ( This one right I never missed. I remember spending more than a thousand bucks to travel all the way to my native just to vote in the last Loka sabha elections… Basically I’m optimistic about democracy). Well, think it was the 21st Birthday. Dude, I can get married (blush!!) legally… Then it came to me as a surprise to note that Govt is more considerate than parents, Govt gave me the right but parents are absolutely in no mood to help me executing it. ( I’m not talented enough to pick a damsel and ask ‘Aathi kya Khandala?’) … Of late I’m trying to forget the fact of a cute little daughter playing in my arms by now if my parents had acted proactively… To come back to the point, this was just a simple, painful 26th with nothing significant to look forward to or no big accomplishments to look back.

Well, this Birthday albeit a special in the sense, my friends, faculty, mentors did sing aloud the Birthday song. To tell you frankly, its pretty embarrassing when the world around you sings birthday song when you sit there basking next to the cake and candles with a forcible smile on your face. Itz good that I share my birthday with another batch mate who also takes away his share of the ritual, which eases the burden of being the center of attention for long. This was followed by a prayer, which significantly calmed down the apprehensions of facing one more year. In fact I was sung songs even in last two birthdays. Last birthday was my first year here as a MD graduate student. It was an identical ritual of this year’s. I wont go into that.



And the previous to last birthday was very special. I need to tell you about that. That was the time when I was in a stark hopeless situation. I was nowhere near a PG seat in any of the PG entrance results. This was when I was studying in Kerala and I was lost in depressing thoughts on my birthday. I was staying with a gang of friends whom I acquainted for a short time. In fact, few were my opponents in the screwed up college elections of UG days. On my birthday I was into lot of introspection and naturally very depressed. They noted those lines of worry on my face. To my surprise they arranged a small mid-night party and all of them sung……..behold !!!….. not the “Hyyaaappy burrday tooo uuuuuuuu…” but a Hindi song “Jab koi bath bigad jaaye…hum hain sath thera...”. That was funny at that time, but very comforting. Unusually enough (unusually because, most of my friends wish me belated wishes till the brink of my next birthday) almost every person I know of called up the same day. I have moved on from there, I hardly have contact with most of them and I’m doing better, but that birthday is fixed in my memory.

Though I have come out of many painstaking times, I don’t have an answer for “R u happy with life?”. I really don’t know. Rather I wonder if I am doing what I wanted to do. This question kills me again and again on my birthdays. To look from outside I have a professional degree, getting another. Have good chances of getting settled decently even in comparative terms. I may get married. May have two kids ‘babloo’ , ‘dabloo’. I could be moderately successful in people’s measuring scale (They have a very rigid scale to measure your worth, they don’t give a damn to your emotions and aspirations). But, Am I happy? I don’t know. Unfortunately I don’t have an answer for what will make me happy. If I go back to my childhood, As a child I wanted to become a bus driver so that I can go on traveling to all new exotic places without dad’s permission. As I grew up I wanted to become a librarian of the library in our town. I wanted to read those colorful Archie’s, Misha, Chandamama even after closing hours of library. Soon we were connected to the cable TV and the job of wandering in forests and taking pictures of animals, snakes on discovery channel looked interesting than that of Librarian’s….. Then someone told me to “become serious” and I became. … One day when I got up from my sleep I was in a medical school with lots of apron clad youngsters hustling around and speaking in an alien language ….. Rest is History …..Now I don’t know if becoming a bus driver at this stage will make me happy with life. This traffic and careless driving gets on my nerves. They are asking for some Library Science degree and a caste certificate to apply for that coveted post of Librarian. I don’t have both…. Discovery & NGC guys need a smart hunk with branded clothes who can ‘act’ well to chase those lizards. Only ‘act’ I can do is to smile sheepishly when they sing Birthday song. So I’m underqualified everywhere……….I guess I’m fine where I am.

Frankly my greatest desire and wish till date is……. All these years should fade away as a dream when I wake up to my mom’s call “Wake up, its getting late for school… how long you want to sleep”…I mumble “Mom…. a bad dream… Oh, My god… today is the first day of my school” and should go running to school with that new slate and ‘My loving Alphabets’ book dad got last evening from Ramu kaka’s shop (Why all the shopkeepers are called Ramu..?).. Keep your fingers crossed for my wish at least on my birthdays.


PS: Friends, Of late the same old dreams are recurring…. I’m falling freely in to a deep, dark, bottomless well and lots of snakes around me (How the hell did I spot those snakes in that darkness… without spects…. Strange)….
Do you have any interpretation? I’m no Sigmund Freud

Govt's Deaf ears......!!

Man attempts self-immolation


If you want Govt Babus to hear your plea, hunger strike, placards are of no use. Those weapons of protest are gone with the Mahathma. The present rulers are not as approachable as British I guess. You have to do something like this, ridiculous. This is an answer to those critics who criticized medicos’ strike that they could have used ‘other methods’ to protest.


Govt is deaf, and you have to hit them hard on their head to get heard or immolate yourself.

Blogspot banned in India..!!!???

Hmm... last two days i was thinking there must be some problem with my institution's ISP and hence i am not able to access blogs on blogspot.... But No!!! Its blocked all over India...

I guess the Govt is running a trial of the proposed 'Broadcast bill'....

But, dont worry bloggers.... Technology has its solutions.. Now the help comes from Pakistan where we often find these kinda bans on 'freedom of expression'... log on to www.pkblogs.com and access any blogspot blog you want to.. Enjoy...

Thank you Pakistani bloggers...

What happened in our God's own country???

I had almost forgotten the Coimbatore blasts of 98 except for a faint memory till 'realitycheck' posted abt it in his blog. .... I know people, including me will forget the Mumbai blasts sooner and our media will move towards more attractive stories...

Realitycheck is a blogger who wrote well researched articles during anti-reservation protests. You should go through them... No stones left unturned, not even a single facet uncovered..

Now he writes about what really happened to the accused terrorists captured by the heroic efforts of Tamil Nadu Police.... What the politicians of our 'God's own country' are upto???... I wont be surprised if it happens to the present Mumbai blasts masterminds, if at all they catch them one day...

But.....What is his Problem?

I am wondering what is this Arjun Singh made of? A load of s#*@...???

Read this....Arjun talks of quota for Muslims...... When the whole country is stunned by the Bombay blasts, this politician was busy appeasing the vote banks.. I dont want to discuss any more on this... when my heart bleeds for the victims of blasts. But he is an unimaginable ......... you know what!!!!

I think we are left with only one alternative for all his problems. Let Manmohan Singh retire and give him that Chair. May be after that he will spare us from his irresponsible, cunning ideas.

Now i strongly think of a retirement age for politicians too. When they consider a 58+ old qualified, educated clerk/typist incapable of doing duties, how can we give our country in these old, not-much-qualified-for-the-job politicians' hands. I am scared.. When i dont want a 70 year old driver for my car, how can i allow these 70+ to drive my country?

I dont know, what i'm writing.. But i am very much disturbed at this moment.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease !!!

That is what i got when i saw this vulgar display of beatzo... Check that out...but careful of your acidity problems...

"Anything for you, Ma'am?"

This is absolutely ridiculous( and hilarious too) ..... The youth congress in Patna has taken up Yagnya to pray for Italy to win this worldcup... Read the NDTV report on this here... Gaurav writes here about this extreme example of pleasing madame ("Anything for you, Ma'am?")...

At anycase, Italy has got new well wishers.....

Books.... Books..... Books....

I recently came across an online e-book fair.... in celebration of Project Gutenberg's 35th Birthday... Its there for one month (July 4th to August 4th) and i happened to download some wonderful classics and some very interesting less-known books.... Nice place to visit on this weekend... go to www.worldebookfair.com

Have a great knowledgeable weekend....

The Ant & the Grasshopper

The dust around the reservation issue and the protests is settling down. It looks like The Governament & Arjun Singh emerge triumphant..... Now i get a forward by Sourabh Sharma.... An interesting analogy to the reservation issue... He post scripts it with ...."I am against reservations for higher education. Provide better primary education to the poor and needy. We have no political support. This is one of the ways we can express our concern for the nation, and its poor.".... Good one Saurabh.... Long live "Youth for Equality"

-----------------------------------

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MODERN VERSION...

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are coldand starving.

BBC, CNN, EURO-NEWS, NDTV, FOX NEWS show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arjun Singh stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house.Amnesty International criticizes the Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper.

Opposition MP's stage a walkout.Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Indian Government (read CongressGovernment) and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by BBC,CNN, AAJ TAK and NDTV.

Arjun Singh calls it "a triumph of justice". Manmohan Singh invites the grasshopper to address the Parliament...

Got The Answer...???YES... You Got It Right...

Some call it RESERVATION & Some call it QUOTA!

Intro

Though I got myself a blog address in Blogspot quite a time back, for some unclear reason I was holding back to my blog at Rediff. Today, I decided ‘Enough is enough’; let me move to my new home in the blogosphere. So I am here.

I have this bad habit of getting attached to past belongings and I always make an attempt to overcome it. May be that was the reason I was holding on to that address. Same time I wanted a new identity for myself too. If you have observed, blogging over a long time will make your posts clichéd. More than often we tend to write for the sake of posting and to keep those comments coming in. It will become a vicious circle. Recently I was going through my previous posts, and then I came to know where I was heading. I have written a post almost alternative day, on every piece of information I have got. Most of that is ‘nothing but crap’. I wanted to come out of it. I wanted to write only when I have something to tell. That was the whole idea why I started blogging a year back.

Its better to tell you guys about myself before I start on. I am a 25yr old chap from Southern part of India with an IQ just below the average. I used to be a doctor. After years of struggle there I figured out, this whole thing of practicing-medicine is rubbish. I felt I have better potentials (the biggest delusion I have till date), let me stop ‘practicing’ and try ‘performing’ something else. I made the second most significant decision of my life (First being joining MBBS for no reasons). I switched from clinical medicine to basic sciences (the tag of scientist looked interesting), only to figure out that ‘when there is a choice, I always take the wrong road’. Now my mindset is ‘scientist gaya bhad main’ let me try out in the management and business sector. After all that is where you can actually show your potentials (!!). Soon you will catch me working day and night to sell my company’s drugs to the not-so-ethical doctors. So that is my journey till now. No chance of improvements. My stupid moronic brain can only worsen the things even at times when ‘the whole world conspires to help me out’.

That’s pretty long an introduction for a duffer. Whatever, I am happy to move to a new house. I will be happy to meet my new neighbors. Did any of my old neighbor spot me at this new address?

1,2,3,... blog check .. hellooo

1,2,3.... blog check... helloooo....1,2,3.. blog check hellooo.. check... check

Nothing, was just checking how it works..

will be back sooon

Seeji.