Cartoon wants animated characters instead of cheerleaders

Siddharam Mhetre, Minister of State for Home and guardian of Indian morality has called the cheerleaders of IPL 'absolutely obscene'. He also suggested that they use 'animated' characters in the place of cheerleaders. Why didn't anyone think of it? Didn't you all know that you are going to offend a few cartoons in this country when you brought those lovely girls to cheerlead?
Mr. Mhetre also said:
[quote]"We live in India where womanhood is worshipped. How can anything obscene like this can be allowed?" he asked. Mhetyre wondered why the organisers require "semi- nude" women to entertain people at cricket matches.[/quote] Oh gee! Really? Aren't you from the same party that watched in glee as rabid mobs slaughtered pregnant women in Gujrat?

Sharukh said: "What's wrong with cheerleaders? I am also a family person, I do not see anything negative in it," Yeah, I am sure Karan won't mind the cheerleaders. As long as they are women. Hee hee.

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R.I.P Raghuvaran

It is not often that an actor like Raghuvaran comes by and captures the imagination of a generation of movie fans. He was a breath of fresh air: in a landscape that was dominated by stereotypes and in a time when exaggeration was the norm. He didn't have the wannabe-flamboyance of Kamal Hassan or the in-your-face antics of Rajinikanth. Nor did he belong to the old school of Sivaji Ganesan. He charted a new path called subtlety. Though most of us didn't understand what it was then, we were enchanted by this tall, lanky actor who for once appeared like a real person on the otherwise regressive Tamil screen.

Take for example, his role of a troubled father of a dying child in Manirathnam's Anjali. It was a stunning performance to say the least. However, he was better known for his villain roles. I choose not pick any but I can't help talk about Bhavani in Ram Gopal Verma's Shiva (Telugu). Raghuvaran was mind-blowing as the bad guy in it. He shed the baggage of generations of stereotypes and blazed new trails as a bad guy.

I remember watching him on TV as Madan interviewed him a few months (or a year back?) and as the interview was concluding something in me told me that Raghuvaran was not going to come back like I wanted him to. I hope he finds peace at least after he has crossed over to another world. Or maybe he was one of those that needed pain to thrive, hurt to survive, and misery to exult. Raghu, I pray that you find what you've been looking for, for far too long. May you rest, in peace or otherwise.

P.S. In a display of shoddy journalism, the media couldn't even get Raghuvaran's age right. Some say it is 49 and some 60. Sad!

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NDTV Plays Big Daddy

This case is just another example of how children of the newly rich across the National Capital Region are picking up wrong habits.

That's an excerpt from NDTV's coverage of the Gurgaon School Shootout.

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Bollywood and Melodrama

"The way they are running polls and interviews, romanticising the prisoner, is ridiculous. Why isn�t Bollywood shedding tears for the victims of the bomb blasts?"
-- Ujwal Nikam, Public Prosecutor, 1993 Mumbai Blasts case.

I don't get it. What were these morons thinking? That melodrama will win over the judiciary? I am ashamed that the dearth of real-life heroes should come back and bite us like this: we glorify and make these Bollywood twerps into real heroes. I some times think that media regulation is actually a good idea in this country. TV channels, especially, went on overdrive, romanticizing the whole Sanjay Dutt story. Every convict in this country has a mother, probably a sister and a spouse too... the fact that Sanjay Dutt has family is not fucking good enough for me to sympathize with him and condone his crime. He is a great star all right, that does not mean he can get away with his rather stupid misadventure (crime?)

There is the other argument that Sanjay Dutt did a lot of social work blah-blah. No matter how much 'good' work a criminal does after committing the crime, it will never undo the crime and its effect. So that is not even an argument.

I request the courts to do us all a favor and deport those monkeys that make statements like 'Sanju baba has suffered a lot, he has haemmoroids.' Or 'Sanju Baba had a tough divorce'

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Dr. Haneef, will you let them make a movie?

I am happy Dr. Haneef is back home and a bit amused too that people are lining up with job offers for the traumatized doctor. Well, sigh, I am glad this story ended on a happy note. Welcome back doc. Maybe you should listen to your wife and stay back, instead of going back down under to prove a point. There is no point there at all. The Australian PM's words and those of his monkey-boy ministers reinforces my belief that they are a bunch of foaming-at-the-mouth, self-centered politicians. Think about it.

I know this sounds morbidly insensitive, but I think Dr. Haneef's story has all it takes to be made into an engaging, riveting movie. Some thing like Roja.

NDTV says:

Over the last month Dr Haneef, his amazingly brave wife Firdaus and even their newborn daughter Hania have been unlikely players in a dramatic and sometimes bizarre case across the world in Australia.

I agree. Ms. Firdaus displayed exemplary courage and amazing enterprise in fighting for her husband. So, Mr. Mani Ratnam, what do you think? 'Naalu padam panrom. Evvalo selavaanaalum parava illa?'

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The Monsters That We Feed

The Gujrat fake encounter news may have shocked quite a few of you. But it doesn't surprise me at all. It wouldn't surprise anyone from Andhra Pradesh in fact.

Back in the 90s when I was a college student, there was this sub-inspector who used to carry a whip. He used to crack his whip on innocent by standers and once he chased us with his whip; why? Because the four of us were having tea on a roadside shop. The inspector, 'Jaati' Naganna later was involved, allegedly, in the rape of a woman in police custody. Back then in Chittoor, I was scared to go out for night shows at the movies, for I was scared of bumping into beat constables: they beat you up any way, whether you show them the counter-foil of your movie ticket or not. Especially in small towns like Chittoor, the police are very high handed and most often than not, their atrocities and violations never surface. Even a constable weilds a lot of power in such towns. Once, after studying until midnight at a friends house, a friend and I stepped out for a smoke. We finished our smoke and were chatting, seated outside a closed shop, when a couple of beat cops emerged. They immediately started questioning the integrity and morals of our mothers, sisters, grand mothers, and aunts. I was so affected by cops from Chittoor that I used to run in the opposite direction everytime I spotted them, after I moved to Chennai.

Cops in bigger cities are no better. Once, after working late, I was on my way back home on a friend's bike. I was stopped by two policemen near Holy Angels convent in Pondy Bazaar. The inspector was drunk and he treated me as if I were a criminal. Despite showing my identity card, he threatened to beat me up and made me sit on the pavement. He called my home and woke up my folks and spoke rudely to my brother. I have no clue why he did that. A year back, a cop in Bangalore stopped the auto I was traveling in and asked 'What kind of a party was it that goes on till midnight? Don't you have any sense? Can't you get back home early?' I wanted to tell him it was none of his fucking business, but the wisdom from my earlier experiences stopped me from doing so. One might ask 'why didn't you complain? why didn't you take legal recourse?' The answer is that I am chicken. I am a coward. I don't want something like that to affect my family or friends. No, don't laugh, it is worse than what's shown in the movies. Ask any small town person.

The Gujrat fake encounters is just one of thousands of failures of our system.
A glance the Andhra chapter of the India Human Rights Report (PDF, 600+ KB) reveals startling, alarming statistics:

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Government of India recorded 53 deaths in police custody and deaths of 85 civilians in police firing in Andhra Pradesh during 2005.3 The NHRC had recorded 13 deaths in police custody, 116 in judicial custody and 18 deaths in encounters in the state during 2004-2005.

The NHRC recorded 18 deaths in encounters in the State during 2004-2005.

The National Crime Records Bureau recorded 53 deaths in police custody during 2005 while the NHRC had recorded 13 deaths in police custody during 2004-2005.

And, that's just Andhra Pradesh. And, just alleged violations by cops. I don't even want to talk about our beloved ministers and members of the parliament. Human trafficking is one of the crimes they are being accused of right now, but you know the whole list: rape, murder and what not.
And, some of us scream about Richard Gere kissing Shilpa Shetty; about how it is not 'our culture.' Is rape and murder our culture? Why the fuck are we silent about such issues?
It is a shame that we continue to display amazing patience (apathy?) to the shit that they throw at us consistently. So, the least we can do is stop burdening the judiciary with stupid and senseless PILs like those seeking the arrest of some actor kissing another! For fuck's sake, we wrote the kamasutra people! We invented good sex. So let's not act all prude. Fuck! it is in our culture!

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When Govt Asks. You give. Period!

India's female civil servants are being told to provide details of their menstrual cycles in a new job appraisal form.

Women in India's sprawling bureaucracy have been angered by the new form sent out this year which asks, among questions about their goals and skills, "when was your last menstrual period?" and "give details of your menstrual history".
[read more on Guardian]

Thanks Madman!

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Delhi is the best city to live in India

[No kidding.]

And, ladies, I am George Clooney.

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Iraq Irony

AN insurgent rocket today narrowly missed the Baghdad building where UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were holding a press conference to announce that the security situation in Iraq was improving. [Link]
Heh!

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The Right Signal

If violence erupts or if there are calls for strikes, IT companies may have to temporarily scale down their Bangalore operations as it will become difficult for staff to get to work. Most IT companies like Infosys and Wipro have business continuity plans in place to move work to their facilities in other locations in India. [Link]

That's what I call a right signal to the world. If the government does not understand the consequences, very soon Bangalore become a ghost IT town. Very soon.

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Now, eat this!

Racism - episode 2
And how did these brilliant NDTV correspondents prove their story?

An advertisement on a new sports channel for the ongoing India-West Indies cricket series has raised many eyebrows.

No, that's not all. Here, check this out.

And critics suggest that if that was racism, then the advertisement is also guilty of the same.

Tell you what, raising of many eyebrows was used as a Barometer in ancient India. No, I am not joking. Dr. Acharya Somuchidononanda Pandey in one of his lectures elaborated upon how in the 9th century BC, people in the kingdom of Kichilika (now Chilakaluripet) observed eyebrow movements of prisoners, to predict snow storms. In fact, Contontik - 1, the ruler of Kichilika had a separate ministry called -no prizes for guessing- Eyebrow ministry. This method of eyebrow prediction spread across India. In fact, until as recently as the, uh, 14th century, the kingdom of Sumbakoodhis (now Delhi, but of course!) had a sports event (similar to Olympics) in which athletes competed in eyebrow raising competitions. The popularity of eyebrow raising then reached such heights that, it became a language by itself. Even today, you can witness eyebrow raising (known as Kalaasal in Tamil) in Chennai: go to any TASMAC shop on the east coast road and see how the tribesmen of QuarterGovindas interact with the clerk at the counter. Be warned that provoking the tribesmen can result in them calling you names using only eyebrows [for example, thevidiya payya (bastard) is decoded as "^^ >> ^` `~ (!)" .]

What amazes me is how did the NDTV correspondents use this ancient technique to predict and break new stories? I implore the management of NDTV to share with us historians, any data related to Kalasal, Sumbakoodhis, Kichilika, and QuarterGovindas.

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Presenting the Custodians of Our Judiciary

The Noida serial killers were beaten up by lawyers on Thursday outside the CBI court in Ghaziabad, near Delhi.
One of them, Moninder Singh Pandher fell unconscious. The lawyers were angry because they were not allowed into the court. [via NDTV]

I think we should just stone the accused to death, in public, instead of wasting the tax payers' money on the case. Judicial process is for civilized societies. Not for us. At least not for Delhi Lawyers.

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WWW: Why Are We Wimps

I read, I think in Tony Greig's book on Cricket, about how an Indian Hockey team, back in the 60s, was sent to Pakistan with strict instructions to �I kid you not� to lose the series. I don't know if this is a hangover from the SatyaGraha movement, we tend to place a lot of premium on being 'nice' to our enemies and detractors. Another sad example is what the India Tourism Office did: Invite Jade Goody to India, with open arms. Why are we such wimps? Why can't we display some character and stand up to people that throw shit at us?
You disagree? See what the Paki press is writing.

Now I know why Munnabhai 2 was such a hit. Now, don't go and preach me about Gandhian values and about how you should show your other cheek and bend over when someone repeatedly slaps you.

I condemn extremism, but I don't believe in being a wimp either. All I am saying is tough times need tough measures. Not your furry cheeks.

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On Racism

The whole country (read media) is screaming and protesting the alleged racist treatment that was meted out to Shilpa Shetty. The governments have joined the cacophony: Prime Minister Blair said 'it can't be condoned' and our own I&B ministry is making noises over the whole thing. I find it funny, for we as a people are probably the biggest racists in this world and we find remarks like 'Indian' 'dog' as racist. Forget foreigners, our own people practice blatant racism against their own people:

1) In Goa, during the x-mas season, if you are an Indian no shack owner will welcome you. Even the cleaning boys treat you like dirt. I thought that the shack I went to was an exception. I was wrong. Wherever I went, the white skin got attention and service where as we were treated like we were refugees. In Palolem, we were asked to pay up in advance for our beers. When asked why the waiter said 'people run away.' I was disgusted when I discovered that he did not demand advance payment from the white masters.

2) In Tamilnadu, they hate the Hindi language. it is not taught in schools.

3) In Assam you could get killed for speaking in Hindi, thanks to ULFA.

4) In Karnataka they started a 3-week moratorium against 'other' language movies (including English.)

5) In Gujarat the state sponsored the slaughter of muslims a few years back.

We are the biggest racists in the world and we have no fcuking right to complain against racism. Let's learn how to treat people of our own country with respect before we blame the westerners and their culture.

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Vamsi Krishna Nakkina wins Google Wordmasters creative writing contest

Vamsi Krishna Nakkina wins Google Wordmasters creative writing contest.

PJ for Tamil speaking readers: Appo Nakkalenna?

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Steve 'Crocodile hunter' Irwin Dies

Steve Irwin, the passionate conservationist who shot to international fame as the Crocodile Hunter, was killed today in a freak accident while diving off the north Queensland coast.
In a bitter irony, the man who risked his life handling one of the world's most dangerous reptiles was mortally wounded by a stingray, a usually passive sea creature which attacks only if threatened. [Via Guardian]

Wikipedia entries on Steve and Stingray

:"( Damn!

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Students of India

What

the

****

is

up

with

students?

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Vaiko: Once bitten, never shy

Speaking to NDTV, the MDMK chief said a separate Tamil state was the only solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and that his party backed the LTTE. (via NDTV)

Only in India you can get away with this. Only here my friend. Vaiko spent two years in jail for supporting LTTE!

But in Gujrat, Modi will feed you to vultures if you tried stunts like this:

The editor of an eveninger published from Surat was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly using abusive language against the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, and various government and other officials for their "failure" in handling the recent floods in the diamond city.In an editorial published in his evening daily, Surat Samna,the editor, Manoj Shinde, attacked several government and municipal corporation officials and BJP leaders, including Mr. Modi, for mishandling the release of water from the Ukai dam resulting in the flooding of the city and colossal loss to the people. The police picked him up on Tuesday morning and has charged him with anti-national activities, including "instigating people against a duly elected government" and defaming senior officials and executives.

Mr. Shinde is an active member of the Congress and convener of the Surat Congress media cell. [via The Hindu]

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CNN-IBN Rewrites Chiranjeevi's Career

In a news article titled 'Fans cheer for Chiranjeevi on b'day', Prachi Jatania wrote, "In fact, there were near stampedes at city�s cinema halls during the release of his last two movies - Gangleader and Tagore."

Gangleader was released in 1991 and Tagore was released in 2003. Chiranjeevi acted in more than 20 movies between 1991 nd 2003.
You can ask 'How the f*** can Gangleader and Tagore be the 'last two movies' of Chiranjeevi then?' One, It is CNN_IBN and two, seems like Prachi can't tell Chiranjeevi from Chirrapunji.
Check out Chiru's bio and filmography onIMDB. (Prachi, did you get that hint? eh?)

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Curtains to Caps Lock?

"The antagonism toward the Caps Lock key extends beyond its misuse by 13-year-old trolls and naive users. Caps Lock is also responsible for failed entries of passwords and other case-sensitive phrases. Users of word processors are forced to retype any text that was entered with Caps Lock accidentally turned on." [via Wired]

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Requiem

The death of merit. The obliteration of the soul of this country's youth. The initiation of catastrophe. Welcome to the beginning of the end. No where in the history of our country has truth been murdered so methodically and brutally, the fair and just were trampled over, and the deserving were crushed to submission, like today. Each one of you will remember how this country's destruction began. Today as we speak the honorable HRD Minister, in his implacable and idiotic stance, has destroyed any hope for the youth of this country. Joining him in this dance of death is our honorable Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Meira Kumar: she says that the private sector has a couple of years to ring in death knell and make the process of wreckage complete.
The government as a whole has reiterated their affinity to this utter disaster by refusing to discuss the quota issue. We are done, if we do go through with the suggested quota policy. The one-eyed men will rule this country of the blind, while those that see will sail to foreign shores or simply quit. We will miss you. We are sorry. God help us.

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Moral Policing May Strike Bangalore University

"Bangalore University Syndicate is considering segregated seating for male and female students, and may even be prescribed a dress code." [Link]
IMHO they should ban co-education. Send them girls to a girls college. That kind of segregation will ensure their protection. Actually they should ban education for either boys or girls. That will simplify a lot of things. I mean if they don't meet at school they can never meet right? Yeah, right.
Where are we headed man?

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The boon bane of quota

Read on NDTV about Yashpal Jaware's achievement. He is from Nandurbar in Maharashtra: One of the poorest districts, which is notorious for malnutrition deaths.
What most fail to see it that at the end of it all, it is the individual's desire, passion, and industry that count. Take a look what he lists when he talks about his obstacles:

1) Cycling 15 KM a day to the nearest science college.
2) Studying: Power cuts ensured that he couldn't study in the night.
3) Coping with English.

He scored 85% in his CET. I am sure that Yashpal would have made it even without quota. What we need to do though is make sure that the Yashpals of this country have easier access to schools and colleges. How will that happen? Only when the government allows the private sector to set up schools, moderate and police the competition thereof. We also need to minimize power cuts. Again, we have to resort to privatization there.
I empathize with his English language problem. I couldn't frame two sentences when I was in school. Such is the situation in small towns and villages. Also, if you talk in English you will be mocked at. That happens even in Chennai!
A feasible way out is to bring Internet to the schools in villages. Train them in computers and let them explore... I don't know I am just thinking aloud. Or, maybe give them self-help books for free so that they can train themselves in the basics of the language.

That said, isn't it obvious that the real benefit of quota goes to the urban, well-off 'backward-on-paper' students? And, that as long as the government's involvement is minimal, we will do just fine?

Also read:
Imagine no reservations by Atanu Dey
Reservations benefit the upper castes by Anand

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Quota any day, to keep the doctor away

What happened in Mumbai is a crying shame. Beating up life-saving doctors with whole world watching sends the wrong signal to the world. What were the Mumbai cops thinking? That they could hammer doctors into submission? Almost every medico-legal case requires the attestation of a government doctor. I have heard of stories about how an intern made an ASP wait for four hours just because the cop tried to bully the intern. Suicide, drunken driving, murder... Just about every freaking case requires the doctor's signature; the cops can't work without the docs. Now that they have lathi charged peaceful protesters as the shocked nation watched, the cops can expect the shit to hit the fan when they go stand outside the doctor's office for a signature. I assure you that the Mumbai cops are going to suffer for a long time to come. Just WTF were they thinking? Mumbai cops have made life difficult for every cop in the country. Amid all this chaos, CNN-IBN pops the question 'right to dignity' or 'right to life.' You have the right to shut the hell up Rajdeep. I am amazed at how you can plumb to such depths just to get some more eye balls and a little boost to your channel's ratings. If you are so worried about your life, you ought to ensure that the life-saving doctors are treated with respect that they so deserve. And, stop creating quota doctors. What the news channels are missing is this big point: where the f**k do you stop the quota? I can live with reservations at school and college level but at the PG or doctorate level?

approximately 30-40 in AIIMS, PGI, JIPMER, 2000 in the All-India entrance and by some extrapolation about another 4000 seats in state medical colleges. A grand total of 6500, give or take. Number of medical graduates coming out every year? Easily around 30,000. Do the math - excluding the ones that go abroad (they can't get to the UK anymore, that's a different story), get married, do MBAs or medical transcription and the ones that get post grad, there's a pool of about 15,000 doctors ADDED to the ones that write the entrance exams.
And the government wants to halve the number of seats available on the general merit list. And it wants the section of society most affected by it to sit around quietly on their lathi-charged behinds. [via quietly Amused]

As this country dies a painful death, thanks to Arjun Singh, the docs are going to fly away from this meaningless system and you and I will end up with a quota doctor who can't tell the scalpel from the scalp. If Arjun Singh falls sick will he go consult a quota doc. Like hell he will. And oh if you were wondering why Arjun Singh won't talk or budge... Simple. The journalists leave the place before Singh opens his mouth. He takes forty hours to say 'Quo...' Anoher ten to finish it with 'ta'. He doesn't budge because he can't walk. I propose that even politicians should be asked to buzz off and retire as soon as they cross 60. I mean, what the heck... have you seen Vajpayee talk? Poor man, makes Prabu Deva look like an amateur; with all that shaking of the head and knees. Such is life. We are governed by leaders who consider standing up an achievement and they decide the fate of this country's youth.
Update:The Prime minister has set up a committee to look into the quota turmoil. And guess who is in it? The Superman Arjun Singh himself!
And, check this out:

Five Hundred doctors in three government hospitals � Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital are likely to face termination of service.
200 senior resident doctors of AIIMS have been given termination notices.
Nearly 70 doctors have rejoined duty at Safdarjung Hospital, while 81 have resumed work at RML.[via NDTV]

I implore the doctors to get the f**k out of this place. If you can't make it to USA or UK. Don't worry, the middle-east is a great place, at least to make some real good money. My friend Vasu will not miss you, after all each one of you, according to him, is an 'RDB' type and you are a rich ass punk with two cars. Could someone introduce him to reality, he's never been acquainted with it. WHY? Why don't these pro-quota people see it: it is like cutting the branch you are sitting on! As David Ogilvy would have put it, we are all set to become a country of dwarfs. Let me clarify one more time before Vasu pounces on me foaming at his mouth. I am not against reservations. But I am against reservations at the PG level, in important domains like public health care, and I am against unreasonable quota systems (the numbers I mean like 69%) that encourage brain-drain. We wronged the backward classes in the past but two wrongs do not make it right. Arjun Singh is doing it to further his political motives. He does not give a toad's ass about you, me, or the backward classes.

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We are killing our doctors

Hundreds of medical students protested against the Congress-led UPA government proposed move to reserve seats in elite institutions saying the proposal, if implemented, would create "quota doctors" which would have "disastrous" consequences. [Via Rediff]

The police fired teargas shells and used water cannons on hundreds of medical students protesting against quotas in the centre of the capital. [Via NDTV]
Of course, when a politician is ill, he will seek the services of a phirang doc or the NRI doc. Great leaders and mass murderers like Modi, in fact, request phirang docs to go check on their colleagues. Will Arjun Singh go to a 'quota doctor' even for something as minor as a cold? But he will decide that the poor of this country who go to the government hospitals will have to consult a 'quota doc' roughly 28% of the time. God save you. If you are a medico, get the hint bud. Get the f*** out of this place. This place is not for you. And, Rajesh, think hard why I am worried about docs in india before you comment. Nalla yosi!

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The Price of Your Life

One of the leading national news channels is doing a special report on medical negligence this week. I�m not surprised that there was the need.
Reservations and �payment seats� rule medical education in the country. Probably reservations for the weaker sections of the society in undergraduation make sense. But what sense does it make to hold reservations at the post-graduation level? Don�t you think that at some level merit should be the sole basis for selection, especially in an essential service like healthcare? [Read more]

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Doctor, doctor

You probably didn�t hear about it. The explanation is very simple. It has nothing to do with the IIMs or the IITs. It is about the fate of the thousands of doctors of this country. The All India Post-graduate Medical Entrance exam was held on January 8, 2006. Over 57,000 students appeared and over 4,000 qualified the exam. The results were announced some where in early February. One of my friends got rank 8! On 1 March, however, we were shell-shocked when we heard that the counseling scheduled for 3 March was postponed and the entrance results were withheld. The honorable health minister Dr.Anbumani  Ramadoss woke up suddenly and ordered a CBI enquiry into reported malpractices from Chennai centers. Some 37 of the top 100 ranks were from the same center in Chennai. One might wonder �why did they announce the results in the first place?� The same thing happened in 2002. The organizers should have studied the results before they had released them. But no, they were too busy making policies of such great importance like, um, ban on on-screen smoking. The entrance is one of the toughest. Doctors take off a year to prepare for this exam. One of the reasons is that this exam does not have reservation quota. The other PG entrance exams like AIIMS have quotas. Why should we have reservations at the PG level? God only knows. Will you go to a doctor if you discovered he got his PG seat using the reservation quota? The hell you will. Anyway, we don't know what this means. Will they have a re-exam and tax thousands of hard-working doctors to punish a bunch of losers? Or will they say 'no discrepancies were found' and get on with it? We don't know.
The aspirants are devastated and haven't a clue what turn their life will take next, thanks to our sensitive and intelligent health minister.

What is the big deal did you say? Doctors in our country struggle a lot. They start earning money�whatever little that is� in their late 20s. By that time, their software engineer siblings, cousins, and friends would have bought an apartment, a car, and what not. I know that we can�t compare professions. Don't tell me about Oranges and Apples cowboy.

Why do we screw our doctors? Their profession is life-saving right? Even our movies show doctors as evil, corrupt individuals who have no social responsibility. So, when they go on strike, we dish out harsh punishment. We sack them. When the bus drivers, phone department employees, or the electricity department employees go on strike, we bear with them. In most cases we give in to their demands. But not to doctors. They go on strike, they are fired. What kind of an unfair system is this? One that hurts its most valuable member.

The on-going strike by resident doctors in Maharashtra is a result of years of government apathy. Before we dig deeper let me tell you how resident doctors in government colleges work. They work 18 hours shifts. They have no facilities. Their hostels are so dirty, quite a few of them sleep in the wards. And, they get paid peanuts. Don�t think that the Maharashtra doctors are on a strike because of all that. They merely want security. This time a patient�s daughter slapped a resident. All he did was that he sought permission for some post-mortem related thing. It is ironic that the life saving professional has to go through all this nonsense and be socially responsible too.

A citizen's group has filed a petition against the Maharashtra doctor's strike in the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court. The petition says that doctors in government medical colleges and hospitals have no right to go on strike, and demands compensation for patients who have suffered. [Via NDTV]

How many of these citizens visit only the government hospitals for treatment? Who are they kidding? We can�t even hold a fair entrance examination. We don�t even offer them basic amenities. We let people manhandle doctors. And now, we want them to shut up about their problems too. When they go to America, we call them traitors. We are such losers, it is not even funny. Why do we expect others to be self-righteous when most of us individuals (even the software guys from Bangalore) won�t even follow simple traffic rules? At times, at the risk of causing injury or even death to our fellow motorists? But each one of us gushed and went into a tizzy of manufactured patriotism about that loser movie RDB? Now, if you really want to make a difference start with the traffic rules. Stop honking you retard. And get a real bike. Lose that Pulsar.
So, doc, I am okay if you go to USA or UK, become super-rich, and be happy.

Anyway, one may think that life is easier for Indian doctors in the USA. It was. But not any more. Check this out . In UK, it has become worse:
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/timeshift/raj-int.shtml  and http://www.aippg.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27399

So there you have it. The Indian doctor is screwed in his/her own country and in the rest of the world too. If we don�t start respecting these life-saving professionals and make some drastic changes in medical education policies, we will be at the receiving end very soon. Think about it.

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