Patients' never drive !!

After having spent an entire year on bed working from home, I gradually starting working full time from office and eventually driving, regaining back some of my lost independence. Then I heard a news that my Eldest First cousin met with an accident & broke his spine. Having spent all of my childhood in & out of hospitals, Hospitals no longer scare me & Doctors' no longer intimidate me. If anything my recent stint with hospitalisation made me very aware of the high emotional strength I've developed as a result of so much exposure to hospitals. My insatiable curiosity of bio-mechanics made me quite proficient in understanding it well enough to name every single bone & joint in body with detailed knowledge of how each worked.


Hospitals are also the places where my unfettered thinking, substantial understanding of medical jargon & inspiring emotional strength are very much coveted for emotional support. Feeling unusually charitable I decided it was high time & I have to become a bit more useful. that unfortunately meant I would have to come out of my self-imposed social exile, which was imposed mostly by inaccessible environment & in no small part because of exhausting my tolerance of seeing other 'normal' people pitying me. After a serious thought I told Mum, that I will drive her to see my cousin, My Mum was then just recovering out of cataract surgery, so she too found much of the public infra-structure around inaccessible.

On the way, I picked-up my sis & drove to one huge multi-speciality hospital, they had just recently added a brand new 3 storied underground parking. India is overpopulated & we are culturally raised with a very strong belief that it is our moral obligation "to visit sick & injured people in hospitals & pity them". Result all Indian hospitals have crowd management problems, every single one has its own approach to solution some more innovative than others'. This particular hospital has elected to limit visiting hours, build huge parking space, one-way (read one directional) drive through exit, pass only visitor access, not more than 2 visitors at a time, lifts dedicated to odd & even numbered floors to further segregate the crowds to manageable sizes, etc...

At the gate my sister & my mother had this brilliant idea, which every Indian & only Indian can relate to. It is one of the conditioned reflexes that only Indians have, like looking out on both sides of road before crossing either side. My mother started showing my support stick that I got as an accessory after my recent knee reconstruction surgery. So the parking security with extreme annoyance at us for creating grid-lock, re-directed us to an entry-gate to drop off physically handicapped. While I was pleasantly surprised with that accessible entry gate,  it was not what we were looking for.

I awkwardly tried explaining to the security guard there, that I am looking for accessible parking. Now since I knew they have just recently added humongous parking, I made an educated guess that the 3 level parking should have lifts, a slight miscalculation on my part. We entered the huge parking lot & got pushed to lowest level, where after getting parking spot, we (me, Mum & sis) started hunting for security guards to get help in navigating to main reception.

We coincidentally found an opening to lift lobby but it was locked, then after much efforts found one security guard willing to answer questions about navigation help needed, here's the gist of conversation as it unfolded with the security guard referred as 'He' going forward just for simplicity.

Me : (with sheer disbelief) the lift lobby is locked!

He : (very politely) lift lobby access is available only to Doctors & important staff with access cards.

Me : I am not in shape to climb steps yet having recently undergone knee surgery to remove the k-wire implant

He : (looking at Mum & Sis as if he has never seen crueller people in his life ) why did you not drop her off at the physically handicapped drop point ?

[at this point I am forced to elaborate for the those unaware of the social context that it is often expected as physically challenged person to be ignored / considered without intelligence, voice, choice & opinions. just Fyi, Doctors do it too all the time.]

Sis : (confessed rather guiltily) how are we supposed to park the car after dropping her off ? neither of us can drive a car, she (pointing towards me) drove us here.

He : (now looking at me with mixed feelings of pity for my handicap, admiration for being a rare wonder of handicapped driver & sorry for the parking situation) Madam, I am really sorry, you can only climb out of parking via stairs.

Me : (with bit of amusement & growing sense of irritation for being admired for "being able to drive") This is a multi-speciality hospital, must have an Orthopaedics wing with patients coming in for Physiotherapy too, right ?

He : (with extreme pride) yes ! that is why we have the physically handicapped drop off point.

Me : what happens if the patient decides to drive ?

He : Patients never drive ! they are dropped off !!

Me : (irritation gradually transforming into annoyance) what if a mobility challenged person has to visit emergency ?

He : (with incredulity) Madam, Patients never drive ! they are dropped off !!

Me : (barely hiding my annoyance) Seriously? they should wait to be driven around in emergency rather than save their own life ?


I've reached this particular impasse another dozen times, with multiple permutations & combinations of arguments & their sequence, but very similar end when I was forced to visit this multi-speciality hospital for many other relatives. I did manage to convince the security guard once, who allowed me to park at surface level at midnight all because I drove my then 5 yrs old niece to emergency for catching 'Dengue'. With Caveat, that the slot was Doctors' reserved parking, making me feel incredibly guilty not to mention uncomfortable to breathe whilst inside for the fear of being summoned back to parking by an angry Doctor who was delayed from attending to an emergency because of my very inconsiderate behaviour.


We do eventually learn to overcome our limitations, in process find some very creative & unique workarounds, at times even overcompensate by masking the pain & hurt just to fit in; But we are still disabled by the perceptions & handicapped by inaccessible surroundings.

Public Transport Gymnastics

Hailing from small town in Western Ghats, meant very rarely available public transport & distances that were not so much far. So as I grew out of callipers(steel), knee surgeries which hyper-extended both of my hamstrings, resulting in loss of control & very frequent locking of both of my knees in hyper-extension; I gradually started walking ever longer distances for endurance. 4 yrs of disciplined efforts at building the endurance paid off, I started relishing my long walks to & fro college 4.2 km one-way on secluded stretch of road. The walks while drained me to the point of physical exhaustion also provided me with a chance to introspect to defuse my anger and bitterness for being pitied, ignored, or ridiculed, which, unfortunately was disturbingly common occurrence.

Got through the turbulent teenage & college education at the same time with flying colours when I landed a job in bigger city. With it came different set of problems, my parents were not at all ready to let me live away from them. After roping in all of my entire extended family & thousand arguments & another million tantrums later, finally got a nod on the condition that I live with my paternal aunt who very graciously agreed to take care of me & look over me. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the context, Indian kids live with their parents till either of them dies or in case of girls till they get married off).

Unfortunately for me, that meant taking 2 buses just to reach the office. This Ordeal made me wonder who designed the red buses that ply on Indian roads as public transport? and with which demographic in mind? I have never seen even a tall man climb the bus without using the support of hand rails, ergo it is only designed for young men with all 4 limbs working in perfect order.  The lowest step to climb in bus is so high that knee of leg reaching the step used to touch my chin.  Believe it or not at 5ft, I am as tall as an average Indian women. Same goes for insides too, the support railing is so high most women would not be able to reach it unless they have Chimp-long arms. This high step climb into bus required me to swing myself up using the 2 door-side handrails to get in, unfortunately these double bar gymnastics did take a little more time for me than needed by others to board the bus. 

While the public transport was feasible it was not accessible/practical at all. The bus stops had no queues, people shoved & pushed to get ahead; most testing of all bus drivers & conductors would not allow me to board from front door. Front door boarding was right of access for physically handicapped & infirm, but the awareness & implementation of the law was infinitesimally minimal. I persistently complained at the interchange every time with the bus number & statement that the driver did not allow me to board from the front door. The clerk at the complaint desk mostly laughed it off till he got annoyed & then literally told me to bugger off saying "I was asking too much of privilege which I do not deserve".


In mean while I figured out that if I start sufficiently early as in an hour before the rush hour I can board the bus, optimistically considered I might even improve my speed of gymnastics to climb too after everyday practise. Boarding the bus from back door, meant the conductor would ring the bell every single time before both of my feet were inside the bus, as I was a slow person who always boarded at last to avoid being pushed underneath the bus by the crowd in hurry.

Eventually I decided, on walking the second leg of the commute instead of trying to board bus at the busy interchange. This gave me back the very chance of catharsis, I so loved. But the distance in the second leg was longer than what I was used to walking & besides this I was throwing up my breakfast everyday due to motion sickness induced by riding the bus. This routine caused a significant drop in my weight in a month which was always a concern for my health as per doctors'. After nearly missing being run-over by bus by falling down while climbing in, I finally convinced my parents to let me live close enough to office so that I can walk to office, instead of taking public transport.

2 weeks later I moved in as a paying guest with a kind family, they also ran a catering service. In the evenings the living room of the house served as makeshift dining hall. I credit my stay here for re-introducing me to my hobby of reading that I had given up under the guise of studying. I first took to reading whilst being admitted to the hospitals, as post-op pain would not let me sleep, sort of made a record of reading 50+ pocket books in 3 months from Tom Sawyer, Black beauty to Sherlock Holmes. The master piece The hound of Baskerville, hooked me on to the series & weird similarities in thought process of the protagonist & mine made me feel a tad too proud.

what would it take for you to hear me ?

Flashbacks of painful surgeries & even more painful physiotherapy from childhood were not happy memories, but they do induce a feeling of strength akin to "I came out of that with flying colours, I can definitely survive this". So while I lay binge watching "Brain games" post knee wiring op, because pain would not let me sleep. There was a weird feeling of being ignored, one that I had compartmentalized as "not being taken seriously as a child". Flashbacks of feeling ignored kept coming back with hospitalization memories, I could not quite figure out why though.

During the night round of doctors, one resident (read Doctor still learning) came & asked where my close relative in attending was. I informed my bro has down downstairs for dinner. I tried striking a conversation trying to figure out what was being prescribed & why. Casually boasting how I have insane amount of pain tolerance which is why I would prefer no painkillers, but I could not shrug off the feeling of being ignored. She ( unfortunately ) interrupted me looking up from sheet she was scribbling on & demanded I ask my brother to sign the sheet once he is back. Once again I tried explaining that he is my kid brother & I can sign the treatment sheet myself since I am not being treated for insanity, which, resulted in her walking out on me mid-sentence with the sheet in her hand.

The morning after though, the feeling of being ignored was distinctly replaced by feeling of unending doom & nausea that made me throw up all contents of my breakfast. I tried telling the nurses who came with meal time meds that something in the medicines is upsetting my stomach badly, but again I was ignored. In mean while the entire team of doctors & surgeons treating me tried telling me how not being able to stand on my non-operated leg, pain is all in my head & I would never be able walk if I do not stand on it now (those who have read my previous post might remember that the other leg too was fractured at 3 places but was not assumed to be so, because I was not crying badly in pain instead just collapsing because it refused to take my entire weight).

The "eat meal - take meds - throw-up everything" cycle continued for another couple of days till I felt really weak & my palms started turning yellow. I could connect throwing up & yellowing of palms to jaundice & I decided to request the surgeon, to test me for it. When he ignored my request I knew it was time to throw tantrum to be heard. I refused to take meds until the staff showed me the contents, too my horror, I was being dosed 600 mg paracetamol 4 times a day. My weight at that point of time was 51.5kg. https://www.drugs.com/paracetamol.html

Despite being overzealous in explaining I have huge pain tolerance to every single doctor I met, I was actually being poisoned by totally unnecessary painkiller. Acetaminophen aka Paracetamol is a painkiller with questionable efficacy compared against placebo  .

So, it was not all in my head after all, the feeling of being ignored was real as the doctors were not just ignoring me, my opinions, my observations but my observable symptoms of paracetamol poisoning. While proving over-dosage was upsetting my stomach gave me the vindication, the recovery from hepatic toxicity was a very long journey.

Googling returned horrific stories on how gender bias affects healthcare
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180523-how-gender-bias-affects-your-healthcare
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2019/07/06/medicine-has-an-implicit-bias-problem-what-needs-to-be-done
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/nov/20/healthcare-gender-bias-women-pain
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/06/listen-to-women-uk-doctors-issued-with-first-guidance-on-endometriosis
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/women-and-pain-disparities-in-experience-and-treatment-2017100912562
https://www.prevention.com/health/a26100121/misdiagnosed-women
https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=782466541
https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20180607/why-women-are-getting-misdiagnosed

Pension for terrorists and 6th pay commision for the Soldiers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF9eKVpr9aM
Another dirty Political move by Congress, which will send very wrong message to terrorists. Please watch the above video to see the schemes Congress hatches in name of Humanity.

We all know the there was large opposition from Armed forces to Sixth Pay commissions recommendations as they benefited very central government employee other than soldiers. Congress has made a mockery of our Soldiers by ignoring their alerts, warnings, needs and welfare time and again.

more is the plight of Paramilitary forces they don't even have the benefits of Pension. If the congress lead government really cared for struggling families, they should have targeted their pension schemes for Paramilitary forces, the door to door travelling Postman who is not even a permanent government employee. Why help terrorists and their families ?? Its like saying come and trouble us we will still take care of your families even if ours starve.

Awaken O Indian Soldier

Discrimination or Exploitation or Theft

Please read only if you consider yourself well-educated, if you choose to not to continue you will be totally forgiven (since you are assumed to be incapable performing the task of passing-on the following knowledge to others').

Leaving aside the torture & violations that women face in patriarchal/underdeveloped societies in form of slavery, female foeticide, female infanticide, sexual assaults & so on...
For this post we are talking only about so called "well educated men & women" here, so lets focus on the educated masses.

Definitions of all the 3 terms in the title of the post from dictionary

• Discrimination - the practice of treating somebody or a particular group in society less fairly than others
• Exploitation - situation in which somebody treats somebody else in an unfair way, especially in order to make money from their work
• Theft - crime of stealing which is rightfully others'

I strongly believe that it is really really high time that we warn our daughters', nieces' & sisters' that no matter how brilliant / educated / qualified /experienced women are and no matter how hard they work; women will never get the same respect & pay for the same work as man, unless they fight really really hard for it.

Lets peek into the shocking disclosures of figures by banks, please do note that banks are not only big financial players but also biggest of the employers too.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-stanchart-results-gender/fresh-disclosures-expose-uk-banks-gender-pay-gulf-idUSKCN1GB1A1

Lets peek into the disclosures by big auditing firms corrected for partners:
http://www.cityam.com/281887/deloitte-and-ey-partners-push-gender-pay-gaps-wider



Please do note that this particular gender pay gap is present in women dominated professions too & not negative as expected
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/dining/a-change-in-the-kitchen.html



Now lets look a little closer to home for the curious case of devotees of MahaSaraswati(Goddess of knowledge & wisdom),  MahaLaxmi(Goddess of wealth), MahaKaali(goddess of power), Devi Gayatri (mother of all 4 Vedas the entire Hindu wisdom of life, yoga & spirituality), Devi Maya, Devi Ambika & so on.

We(Hindus, Sikhs, Jains & Buddists) are the only living society that actually prays Goddesses alongside Gods & actually is taught that respecting women is essence of moral code of conduct.

This excerpt from Manusmriti for example reads in Sanskrit:
यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता: ।
यत्रैतास्तु न पूज्यन्ते सर्वास्तत्राफला: क्रिया: ।।

अर्थ:
जहां पर स्त्रियों की पूजा होती है, वहां देवता रमते हैं । 
जहाँ उनकी पूजा नहीं होती, वहाँ सब काम निष्फल होते हैं

Meaning in English:
"Where Women Are worshipped, Divinity Blossoms There. 
Where Women Are Dishonored All Actions however noble will remain Unfruitful."


The next figures are little older & the link is referenced only to highlight the nightmarish trend of gender pay gap increasing from 10% at 10th board level education to alarming 180% at post-doctoral level. 
https://paycheck.in/main/world-map-gender-pay-gap/gender-pay-gap-in-India-1 
This shows that not only Indians' do not value the living incarnations of the goddesses amidst them but they actually punish women who excel at their work.


Now, lets see what influential world leaders have done/attempted to change the situation
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/obama-announce-new-rules-closing-gender-pay-gap-n506941
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/us/politics/obama-moves-to-expand-rules-aimed-at-closing-gender-pay-gap.html
Mr. Obama, Sir with all due respect you only remembered half of your voters very late in the last part of your 2nd term.

https://www.payscale.com/career-news/2016/09/asking-salary-history-soon-illegal-50-states
this was a great move should now be followed all over the world.



Governments all over the world are loosing their patience & taking drastic measures by outlawing the pay discrimination.
Because like every other crime against humanity hidden from public censure, allowing the data/statistics of discrimination to be hidden from the victims of exploitation is tantamount to denying them the right to seek justice.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/iceland-gender-pay-gap-illegal-men-pay-more-women-income-salary-earn-a8139141.html
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nicky-morgan-nowhere-left-to-hide-for-gender-inequality


Coming back to the title of my post, since all three words are taken as crime against humanity in every "developed/educated" society.
I wonder will United Nations human rights commission call a tribunal & seek justice for victims of this exploitation on massive scale, where victims are actually half of human population ? (except for Asia where preference for male heir has resulted in very skewed sex ratio of population)
or 
seek compensation for victims who have been wronged for more than a century by theiving employers who stole their rightful money without even slightest attempt at correction or semblance towards disclosure of truth ? (even if just for the sake of moral high)

This particular robbery has been ongoing for more than a century as women have been participating in paid labour since industrial revolution of 1760
http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/lesson7.html



Please do note this post is only to expose the injustice that pay disparity does to average hardworking women. This was compiled because I was challenged by many working women who oblivious to reality are living in denial with rose tinted glasses & perceive they are given their due share of pay & credit (this will require another post altogether).

Kindly note pay discrimination does not include Glass-Ceilings & Glass-Cliffs that high achieving women face whilst climbing professional ladder (this too will require another post).

This is the injustice done to average women who work really hard shoulder to shoulder alongiside men in every known profession & still get paid less than man for the same work.

All the references given in-line are to prove that it is analysis of reality & not nightmarish dystopian speculation of my cynical brain.

The above post is in no way a speculation but mere set of straight forward logical inferences drawn from cumulative & iterative analysis of reports available in public domain.

Rona Jaruri Hai (Crying is Essential)

For Reference please read my previous post

Since Bhiwandi was out of the way for all of my family, I was moved to Thane for further rest. There I developed colon stones because of undigested heavy doses of Calcium. I was admitted to Jupiter Hospital, Thane. There after removing stones, I was prescribed stool softener & kept under observation.

Here I took second opinion of a very well reknowned Orthopaedic surgeon, who agreed that the surgery was done well. there was swelling in both legs which he said is fairly common, for that he asked me to keep the legs elevated. I then complained that my left knee & ankle are hurting very badly. The Surgeon prescribed few X-rays & physiotherapy for the operated leg after 3 more days.

The Physiotherapist came as informed, told me after going through few X-rays that I should attempt to stand on my left leg since it is not seriously injured. So she made me stand. I fell down with a bang & took 3 people to get me up on the bed. The operated right leg was X-rayed once more & I was told there is no serious damage done.

Then another surgeon came & said consulting x-rays I must attempt to stand when the swelling subsides after. I was discharged & came back to Pune.

Here too I took 3rd, 4th, 5th opinions of Ortho surgeons on the operation & every single one of them said. the surgery was done well & I must attempt to stand on my left leg now.

So, Despite pain I started attempting to stand on my left leg every day. At first the left knee used to buckle then it gradually started bearing weight. But every weight bearing resulted in extreme pain & very bad swelling. This continued for 2 months. Then I got my left knee & ankle x-rayed without any medical advice. then took the reports and x-rays to another surgeon. Carefully placed left leg X-rays on top.

The diagnosis devastated me, he told me I have 4 more fractures on my left leg, 2 on patella & 2 on ankle :O . He said he was surprised that the ankle did not dislocate despite pre-mature weight bearing abuse. He told me that if the Fractures don't heal in 3 months time then, the bone becomes Osteoporotic. This meant another severe break in recovery.

Began keeping both legs elevated to avoid swelling since the ankle joints were badly hurt, so could not be moved. After about a month came the verdict that both knees recovered well however my left ankle has become permanently Osteoporotic.

I went through all the x-rays & reports to see when, where & why were fractures neglected. It turned out none of the doctors in Jupiter actually reviewed my left knee & ankle x-rays since, their reports mention only the the fractures on my right knee & right ankle.

My advice after being misdiagnosed by many doctors is that you must cry in front of the doctors only then will the doctors will acknowledge the seriousness of the situation.

All throughout my painful recovery I was helped very much by my family, friends, colleagues & even roadside acquaintances. I'm really blessed.

The Highway Accident that Changed Me

My usual speed on highway is 60-70 Kmph in day time, at night it is drastically reduced depending on presence of dividers & visibility;
Which is limited by head lights range, given my two humble Manual transmission Maruti Suzuki Alto LXi cars, my speed on highway at night is limited to 45-55 Kmph.  I'm known to be an efficient & sometimes a tad too fast in city traffic, but I follow lane discipline religiously, never cutting lanes & never skipping indicators.

Given above information, you can assume I'm probably the most overly cautious driver, who even listens to slow music so, as to avoid temptation of rash driving. Additional note here, that Music affects me profoundly, so much so, that I avoid sad songs since I cannot shake the gloom off for another 3 days.

By now, you must have gathered my driving to be highly uneventful, which was the case till last fortnight, Having driven 1,50,000+ Km,
without considering my attempts at learning the art of driving, or my attempts abroad. My first Alto was scratched on all sides while getting in & out of parking.  But once I mastered parking, honestly which, took a lot of efforts, some revision of solid geometry & motion physics, My car was eventually safe from parking attempt dents.  But was frequently hit at rear end mostly while starting from the traffic signals. Since the rear bumper was replaceable & economic thanks to Maruti Suzuki's mass production, I never got down from car to haggle with tailing driver who broke my bumper. This bumper break once happened at night 11 pm at Hinjewadi Chowk, Pune, this time I was badly shook. A wise Indica driver besides me told me to run as the biker who hit my car's bumper was drunk & riding the bike without head lights ON. My honest confession, this was the only time I ran from the incident, generally on being hit I get rescued by Traffic cop on signal, who notes down all details, then explains to me how it was not my mistake & cheers me up by telling me not to get disheartened.

Now about the event which changed my perspective on lot of things.  As an adventure I took driving on an unknown highway at night to test my driving skills Nashik-Thane ( 125 Km), Not a long stretch compared to my usual Pune-Nashik-Pune (217 Km one way) drives on weekend. Because the road was new for me, I was driving slower than usual. I got pulled over by cop before entering Highway around 7 pm, showed him all the documents including car registration document & my license, which usually triggers a debate, about authenticity, Cops general argument I do not look old enough to drive. I usually take that as a compliment :) & show any other ID proof I'm carrying. After seeing all the documents the cop was convinced I was no evil just confused about the way so gave me all the needed directions to enter the highway.  Note, my license is 10+ years old :). If you are good at maths that must have given you a hint about my age.

I started driving towards Thane around 7:15 pm, and noticed both of my fuel gauges (Petrol & CNG) were closing to empty.  So, I pulled over at next Petrol Pump, did a TANK FULL. Entered Kasara Ghat, my childhood memories of this Ghat are full of long episodes of Nausea & Vomiting.  Note here, I've very bad motion sickness, which is not psychological, inner ear sensitivity. This is also prime reason for me to drive car as I can slow down to less than 40 before turning, to avoid repeat of episodes. Motion sickness is a thing I've tried explaining to 3 of my chauffeurs & most of my friends, but in vain :( . So, 8 yrs back I finally started driving Car, tired of getting sick while someone else drove.

Around 9:30, I started getting too many head light flashes, so I had to leave right lane. Unfortunately the Left lane of that highway is totally blind to turns & entering lanes. At one particular turn, I got to know it was a turn only after turning the steering wheel so could not slow down much, started honking. Near Padgha, location that I now know. I saw a red bus entering perpendicular to highway to cross it, within 8 feet of my car's bonnet, I knew from my experience that my car wouldn't stop within that distance, old model would have stopped on hard braking, but the new Alto is not that happy to respond to the brake.

Had an epiphany, instead of hitting the Bus sideways between its two sets of wheels, I steered car towards the front tyre of bus to avoid serious head injury. Thank god & heavens my precious brain was saved.

Now about the life Changing experience. I keep griping about how Indians need to learn civic sense. How most Indians are insensitive on the road, do not stop to help on highways. Believe me I do act to help in such situations, I've reported many accidents to Police control room & highways patrol.
Called Ambulance a few times. But I was taken aback & overwhelmed with the sheer amount of help I got.

I must be god's favourite child for despite all the hardships he puts me through he is always there to help me navigate through them.  There were around 25 people who rescued me out of my damaged car & nabbed the drunk driver on my request. The Ambulance came in about 3 minutes, by then saw my phone was broken, used company phone to dial my brother, told the Ambulance driver to tell him where he is taking me. Ambulance took me to a Multi-speciality Hospital in Bhiwandi as I requested them to take me towards Thane, since it was closer.

Hospitals bring back another rush of memories to me, they were my second home all through out my childhood since my age of 6 months; when the doctors realised I was not a vegetable though rendered immobile by Cerebral Palsy to my age of 13 years when I decided hospitalization is enough & I do not want my SSC education to be disturbed. This part of my life deserves another post or may be a book.

Back to my experience at Bhiwandi Health Care Multi-speciality hospital. I've had loads of experiences with doctors who trivialise my injuries some even do not give any first aid other than pain killers because I'm not crying in pain. A person of my experience gets to learn a fundamental of life very early, I can either let my forever present pain decide a life for me OR I decide for myself & ignore the pain so, that I can live the life my way. Needless to mention, I chose second option. Since pain does not make me faint, I was in all my senses & I told the doctor I've spastic CP & Tachycardia, Arrhythmia which tagged along with my CP. I could see disbelief in his eyes, by then my body surprised me too, it started swelling all over. Since I was not letting anyone touch my legs, he made out pain in my legs must be severe. He asked me how I got CP, I told traumatic birth, had a large head, full term, healthy 8 pounds baby. The Gynaecologist did not decide to do a C-Section despite missing heartbeats, I guess that removed all his confusion.

Orthopaedic surgeon asked me to do a straight leg raise, for both of the legs I knew my right knee was dislocated, but I still managed to do a straight leg raise till about 30 Deg, which is almost as good as my normal muscle tone. But it was extremely painful, I told him so. then the X-rays began. there was a thin fracture discovered in knee, but I insisted it is dislocation since I tried moving the knee joint to get full range of motion out of it & the Pain got me sweating profusely. Despite that I managed to move my leg from 75 Degrees extension to 25 degrees. The Next morning the Ortho accepted that the patella is broken, dislocated & needs surgery.

The Hospital promptly got a panel of surgeons & stitched back my patella using K-wire on Sunday.

Well change of perspective is in order. "India has made an immense progress in Medicine" & definitely a big leap in sensitivity for highway accidents.

This post is to thank all those highway drivers, &  Ganna Juice wala (Raswala) who helped me that night. And the Cops who assured me that they will take care of all my belongings inside my car.

I'm still trying to understand why so many people rushed to help me, but I believe, this is God's way of saying he is watching over me.

Kindly note, no names have been included as I've not got permission that the respective names can be included.

Is Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant Safe ?

20 years, 92 quakes: Ground trembles beneath Jaitapur's feet
The biggest earthquake in Jaitapur, recorded in 1993, measured 6.2 on the Richter scale. The ground is unstable, say activists and geologists.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/20-years-92-quakes-Ground-trembles-beneath-Jaitapurs-feet/articleshow/7714776.cms

Scientists at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) under the Department of Atomic Energy have intensified monitoring of the city's air to detect any perceptible change in radioactivity level after explosions at a nuclear plant in earthquake and tsunami-devastated Japan.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Nuke-lens-on-city-air/articleshow/7714670.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/news/Japan-crisis-spreads-Radiation-levels-rose-in-Russia/videoshow/7717277.cms

Germany on Tuesday became the first European country to shut nuclear plants in the wake of the crisis in Japan as the EU made plans to test all 143 nuclear power plants in its 27 countries.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/germany-shuts-seven-nuclear-plants-eu-to-test-all-143-nuclear-power-plants/articleshow/7716780.cms?curpg=1

With all this investment the most optimistic projection says that India will get 7% of its Power from Nuclear energy. Is the investment & returns on Nuclear Power Plant worth the risk of million lifes, it can eliminate in catastrophic failures ??

Bharat ki Gori Bahurani, "Indira bain chi sunbai"

Past few days I've been contemplating of penning, some questions pestering my mind about our own Forbes Influential Woman "Mrs Sonia Rajiv Gandhi", please do not hesitate to post comments if you have answer to any one of them.

At first Mrs Rajiv Gandhi's presence in PM Indiraji's residence just troubled my logical mind. How can a son of PM be allowed to marry a foreigner and be allowed to stay with spouse in PM's residence?? As far as my understanding stretches, any solider (or administrative personnel with access to documents) in Indian armed forces has to give up his/her job in armed forces to marry a foreigner. Wouldn't PM's son & his wife have more access to PM's personal office ?? doesn't PM have access to all confidential documents of Indian Armed forces, & Intelligence ?? didn't Mrs Sonia Rajiv Gandhi have close proximity to confidential documents ?? whether she misused the access or not is not the question here but she could have, isn't it a breach in PM's security??

Mrs. Rajiv Gandhi also turned down the Indian citizenship for more than a decade. She married Rajiv Gandhi on 28th Feb, 1968. Became Indian citizen on 30 April 1983. Why so much of delay ? All this while she was a foreigner staying at PM's house, isn't it a breach in PM's security??

She entered politics riding on sympathy of Late PM Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. It was expected of her to speed up prosecution of the traitors who were behind her husband's death. But to my utter surprise, the widow who was demanding strong action against her husband's killers, filed a mercy petition to pardon her husband's and Indian PM's killers, once congress won on sympathy vote and came in power. Why ? if she wanted killer pardoned, why did she demand strong action from previous government ??

The alliance of Congress(I) with MDMK, PMK, and DMK, who were allegedly involved in supporting LTTE, when Sonia was high command herself, was no less shocking.

Well another, observation that troubles my logic is "Within 62 days of joining of as primary member of a political party, she was offered the party President post which she accepted". A lady so averse to politics (Soniaji was quoted saying so by media on multiple occasions) was confident enough to take over "the most senior party post" of one of the largest party of world's largest democracy ?

Why she was offered the post in first place is another question altogether. J Nehru's family has been charming Indians by their emotionally appealing slogans of "Garibi hatao" (eliminate poverty) for more than half of the century. Congress(I) gets the presidents from Nehru dynasty for swaying masses to their tune, Soniaji did it very well.

Date references are taken from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Gandhi

Its seems, I'm not the only one with the questions, after some net surfing I found some interesting links
3 video series questioning citizenship of Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6HlUcr_YDA

Swiss money references :
http://www.zeenews.com/news528156.html
http://greathindu.com/2009/10/know-your-fascist-super-prime-minister-sonia-maino-aka-gandhi/
http://www.janataparty.org/sonia.html

What if there's no Laxmi for Laxmi pujan Or Durga for Durga pujan ??

To all those people who did Laxmi pujan this Diwali or performed Durga puja on Dusshera; think for a moment if next generation in you family cannot afford to find or buy a Griha-Laxmi (bride). Few days back I happened to see this documentary late night "India's Lost Daughters", which has left with me a lingering feeling of disgust. It highlights the serious issue of female foeticide / infanticide. The documentary is based only on Andhra Pradesh but the situation isn't different in other states

India's lost daughters: Abortion toll in millions :
As many as 10 million (= 1000000 = 1 Crore) female foetuses / infants may have been aborted in India over the last 20 years as families try to secure a male heir, according to a study published Monday in The Lancet, the British medical journal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/7039681.stm

another story from New York times

these are official figures, real figures are expected to be at least twice the official ones. the major reason for such a skewed ratio & the most astonishing one was not the want of Son or hatred for a girl child. but that the girl child's upbringing is costly affair for parents.

• first she has to be educated at par to get good groom, otherwise she has to be fed throughout her life
• then comes the question of stri-dhan, fathers start collecting the gold for marriage since the girl child's birth, only if they plan to let her live.
• then comes dowry although ill-legal for ages, the custom still continues and is socially rewarding even in elite classes in India

All that can make middle class father of a single daughter bankrupt, & so they don't want another girl child. the poor people can only manage to brutally kill the girl child as they cannot afford the clean way of foeticide like most of the elite classes.

Down south the society takes pride in showing off how much dowry they arranged for. North Indians too are not behind
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/When-baraatis-took-BMWs-solitaires-home/articleshow/6825573.cms

The sex ratio in Rajasthan & Haryana is so skewed that polyandrous marriages where the bride is purchased from neighbouring state and married to 2 brothers are becoming more common than ever.

Can we not as civilized educated society create a taboo around dowry & embarrass the grooms who flaunt gifts from in-laws, if they are not grateful enough to give any return gifts.

Ladies, seriously answer one question to your own conscience, if not openly "is the groom so bought from the market by your parents, seriously worth few Lakhs to few Crores that your parents spend on you marriage ? " Does that deal make your life in the husbands house any better than an educated & self-respecting lady's, who chose not to buy husband from marriage market ?? Are you not troubled by the financial stress your marriage puts on your parents & which depletes their reserves for retirement ??

I know I'll get comments from earning ladies who support there parents that they are helping parents manage there finances, but please note however great that achievement is, we are still a tiny minority. I know too many educated ladies living off their husbands income to think otherwise. plus we are few lucky ones to have lived & been given a chance of education. that leaves a gaping hole to correct the deeply skewing sex ratio.

Any innovative suggestions to help correct skewing sex ratio other than strict laws that check female sex determination / foeticide / infanticide / dowry burning; Reason, laws need a good infrastructure for implementation. we've failed miserably on that front. plus its the society's own responsibility to grow civilized not only Government's duty to herd us towards right choices.

Learn Indian History from an Indian scholar

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=340&page=4

Here's more detailed version of her sick mentality
http://www.hindujagruti.org/denigrations/sitasingstheblues

Paley really needs to learn Indian History from an Indian scholar, So that she does not become butt of controversy every time. Her interpretation is so imbecile & outrageous, that it shows off her limited IQ more than her creativity. I never thought Ramayan was so difficult to understand.

Check my other post on whether Ram existed
http://ekjagrutbharatvasi.blogspot.com/2009/07/king-shree-ram.html

Swine flu media hype

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/jaipur/Dengue-malaria-more-fatal-than-swine-flu/articleshow/4869284.cms

Swine flu scare, a classic example of media hype, when there were more deadly fevers doing rounds

cerebral malaria in north-east
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/patna/Unicef-team-visits-Munger-villages/articleshow/4886468.cms
http://timesofindia....indiatimes.com/articleshow/291259.cms

brain fever
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Six-more-children-die-of-encephalitis-toll-356-/articleshow/5075578.cms

dengue in Nashik-Pune
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/pune/Dengue-on-the-rise/articleshow/4992325.cms

A planned cover-up

a planned cover-up of Bofors scam, which took almost quarter of the century to complete, unfortunately the master mind couldn't get into power for long else the media wouldn't have got any share at all.
check some links of media coverage of the issue
http://www.rediff.com/news/bofors.html

do voters really understand who they are voting to power or are the electronic voting machines rigged to get the most notoriously powerful party back into power again ??

King Shree Ram

http://blogs.timesofindia.com/jugglebandhi/entry/is-ram-really-for-real

Mr. Jug Suraiya, I donot agree with your view that Ram is Not Real, AS, YOU ARE NOT AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AUTHORITY TO SPEAK WITH CONFIDENCE THAT RAM NEVER EXISTED.

Shree Ram is accepted as Ancient Ruler of India by all countries from Persia to Japan through there historical records of ancient times. His capable administration still a part for folklore in Shri-Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Korea, Japan, China, besides the Indian sub-continent that he ruled. And he still continues to rule billions of hearts of Hindus as obedient son, a good brother and a great ruler.

Predominantly Buddhists countries refer to Shree Ram as Bodhisattva King. Which is Right as we ourselves refer Gautam Buddha as Vishnu avatar. If writings of script are no historical proofs of existence then there are not mortal remains of existence of Muhammad and Jesus too.

Its a fact that Shree Ram has less physical evidence of existence as his era happened to be earlier than Shree Krishna (4000 - 5000 yrs BC), Gautam Buddha (400 BC) and (16th Century) Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Since Hindu philosophy, believes in seeking God within oneself. Idolizing those who sought the divine power in themselves and were successful in using the divine power for social benefit should not be a surprise. We pray Saints like Tukaram, Chokha mahar, Gora Kumbhar, as much as we pray the God Vitthal-Rukhmini.

Its another debate whether Shree Ram was Shree Vishnu's (God's) Avatar (incarnation) or not, but proof of existence
King, Samrat, Shree Ram OR Sultan Ram ( as Malaysians & Indonesians refer to him) is certainly present in abundance throughout the historical records of all Asian Countries. So, Shree Ram is as real as we all are.

As far as the Setu Samudram project is concerned, its feasibility itself is a questionable, leave aside profitability. you will find enough evidence of it on net.

And no country not even USA or UK will ever sacrifice its heritage site for new project As they are essential links to human as well as cultural evolution in the country. why expect Indians to part with it ??

Education needs more finance

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Education/An-elementary-and-primary-concern/articleshow/4770648.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Education/The-wrongs-in-the-Right-to-Education-Bill/articleshow/4742600.cms

The Indians abroad respected and envied for their intellectual achievements but, Education for the poor still remains a dream for great country which has civilization history dating back 5000 years.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India-Business/Spend-whatever-required-to-ensure-quality-education-Azim-Premji/articleshow/4736037.cms
Azim ji, I wish you were Advisor to Finance minister.

Congress => Zero reform

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c8524754-29f4-11de-9d01-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fc8524754-29f4-11de-9d01-00144feabdc0.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fsatyabhashnam.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Finteresting-articles-hindu-6-30-2009.html&nclick_check=1

Very correct if only Indians were mature enough to understand that voting was more a responsibility than a right. And that the vote should be based on sound logical judgement instead of emotional pleas or vote bank politics.

http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/14/stories/2009071460641100.htm
Congress, has a track record of increasing fiscal deficit, they cannot build nation.


http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/jul/04/was-election-2009-rigged.htm
possibility of election being rigged so costly for country with such huge population. hoping educated youth awakens and takes cognizance of such irresponsible attitude of the Election Commission and teach them lesson.

Babus are very Dear to India

the word DEAR here denotes both the meanings of "Loved" as well as "Costly" :)

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/how-much-does-a-babu

A nice write-up on the sarkari babus by Jug Suraiya ji. Indeed Sixth pay commission just proved that the Congress government was exploiting army to gain vote bank of central government employees. the large scale disappointment in Armed forces yielded no effort from government to secure their trust.

More crorepatis, more criminals in 2nd phase

http://www.zeenews.com/nation/2009-04-20/525300news.html

Check out the news post Congress certainly leads , it comes to Criminal Candidates.

Are we really Safe ??

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/3-polling-booths-set-on-fire-in-Orissas-Malkangiri-district/articleshow/4408741.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Powerful-IED-found-near-polling-station-in-Assam/articleshow/4409054.cms of 200kg
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Naxal-strikes-kill-17-on-Lok-Sabha-polling-day/articleshow/4408267.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ranchi/Terror_reigns_supreme_in_Latehar/articleshow/4411061.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ranchi/Colleagues_dead_15_BSF_men_in_hospital/articleshow/4411725.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bhubaneswar/Zero_count_at_8_booths_because_of_Maoist_terror/articleshow/4411136.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Nagpur_They_risk_finger_to_show_finger/articleshow/4412444.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Patna/Naxal_threat_looms_large_in_second_phase_too/articleshow/4421096.cms

How many more news do we need to realize and come out of the fantasy that we are safe. We really need Stringent laws and their stringent implementation against terrorism.
Closing eyes on reality & denial will not help us come out of the situation. We need to realise the gravity of the situation and employ all Sam, Dam, Dand, Bhed to overcome the terrorist.

Gujrat Riots the Special Investigation Team's Obesrvations

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/NGOs-Teesta-spiced-up-Gujarat-riot-incidents-SIT/articleshow/4396986.cms

The Special Investigation Team responsible for the arrests of those accused in Gujarat riots has severely censured NGOs and social activist Teesta Setalvad who campaigned for the riot victims.
(Some previous information on Lady's actions http://www.newsanalysisindia.com/221022008.htm)

Here's detailed account of who got money from where
http://www.dailypioneer.com/144856/Godhra-riot-witnesses-got-Rs-1-lakh-each.html

Isn't it thought provoking to see how money can change the stand people take and how it can be used to falsely malign the state machinery which is trying to get the situation under control. More disturbing to see where the donated money goes.

Performance of Congress on Infrastructure and Development

http://www.webnewswire.com/node/448633

Congress could not even continue the momentum of already started highway development projects of NDA, too bad their reports speak bountiful about inept governance. Just continuing on the projects could have generated good amount of employment options for daily wage earning people of India.

"Jobs are the way to development NOT the alms of Subsidies & Loan waivers"

Performance of Congress on Agro-developement

In Maharashtra’s poorest districts, politicians strike it rich
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/04/14/stories/2009041460551300.htm
The constituencies of Maharashtra facing agrarian crisis, with farmers committing suicides, are the ones where Congress MLAs & MPs have grown richest. Yet, congress feels that it will win the polls on Loan waivers.

Loan waivers are worst form of lure, they reward those who cannot perform and punish those who even under worst of circumstance still manage to repay their debts. Reason one Loan waiver wave discourages bankers from giving loans to farmers as they see no profit in lending to farmers. The farmers who paid the debts now are left with no options but to starve or go to savkars as they see no more loans coming from Banks.

Instead Lower rates should be proposed along with strong insurance support to deal with the climatic odds. Plus there has to be a channel to export the excess which is not rightly done currently. Storage for agricultural produce is very costly and cannot be afforded be marginal farmers. The excess produce and one time of getting crops to market forces the farmers to sell their produce at lower price for fear for spoiling. The stockist take undue advantage of opportunity, wait and sell of the same vegetables at 5 times the original price. Again its the farmer here who is at loss.

No insurance, farmers will be forced to commit suicides
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_farmer-commits-suicide-in-nashik-after-rain-ruins-crops_1474186

Indian history through Eyes of History Student of foreign origin

http://www.rediff.com/news/franc.html

François Gautier (http://www.francoisgautier.com/) born in Paris, is a French journalist and writer, who was for eight years the political correspondent in India and South Asia for " Le Figaro " and worked for Ouest-France, the largest circulation daily (1 million copies) and Marianne, a political magazine. He has written several articles and columns. Married to an Indian and has lived in India for the past 33 years. Francois, who wrote extensively for the “Ferengi’s Column” in the Indian Express and the “French Connection” column in the Pioneer and contributes regularly to Rediff.

He has presented a very good account Indian History which is not included in our history textbooks for rotten politics of minority appeasement carried out by political party which comes to the power only with vote bank politics and its Political leaders have only one agenda of filling their own deep pockets at the cost of Country's development.
Rewriting Indian History

I salute Francois for his continuous and dedicated efforts to bring into light "the plight of Kashmiri Pundits" and Wish him success at it.

Right to our motherland and its resources is ours

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Guwahati/Bangladeshi-influx-worries-Muslims/articleshow/4376657.cms

Good at least the Indian Muslims are waking up to see effects of dirty vote bank politics.

Every sovereign state has its own economy which runs the Government and the country infrastructure of basic necessities. The economic system generates money from Tax paid by the citizens, investments in PSUs, holdings in various instructions and reserving right to country's natural resources, etc. The profit so generated has to be used for providing subsidy to various basic necessities LPG, Kerosene, Food grain Ration and life saving drugs, so on and so forth...

Given that India has huge population and is one of the few most densely populated countries. Which means the population is already in excess to the Land mass we have. It is still developing in terms of infrastructure so it needs more influx of money than the expenditure on subsidies to cut on deficit and debts that it has been building over post independence years. Plus our very friendly neighbours have made it mandatory for us to go on expending in curbing terrorism and infiltration.

Our overburdened economy needs relief and not irresponsible approach towards ill-legal immigration, which adds undue burden on infrastructure.

Logical approach to the situation, is very simple we build our system strong enough to support our less fortunate struggling neighbours. But this can be done only after we have built ourselves strong enough, which is not possible if do not stop ill-legal immigration claiming right on our natural resources and encroaching our jobs. we need to seal all borders, and deport all ill-legal immigrants so that our own citizens get the opportunity to work and feed their own families.

"Jobs are the way to development NOT Subsidies & Loan waivers" Reserve our jobs for us and Deport ill-legal immigrants back to their countries.

Wondering Why India is still developing nation??

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Its-politicians-not-India-shining-as-their-assets-soar/articleshow/4367826.cms

India Shining ?? You may not be able to say this about India, but its politicians are certainly shining.

The richest candidate so far, going by assets declared, is Lagadapati Rajagopal, the owner of power generation and infrastructure company Lanco, and the Congress candidate from Vijayawada. He has shown assets worth
Rs 299 crore. In 2004, he had declared assets worth just Rs 9.6 crore. In other words, during the five-year UPA rule, his assets went up 30 times or by almost 3000%.

Polls 2009 Coverage Links

http://yourvoice2009.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Very Good documentation regarding the issues facing nation and its solutions proposed by various parties.

http://www.rediff.com/election/loksabhapolls09.html
A every extensive coverage of all parties by rediff.
Do take time out to go through at least a few articles before you vote, if you are an educated Indian citizen.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Election09/
Constituency wise coverage.

http://in.elections.yahoo.com/
Good attempt the best part of this site is compare manifestos feature check the next link
http://in.elections.yahoo.com/comparemanifesto.html?party1=BJP&party2=Congress

All of these are must read for an Educated Indian Voter and Young aspirants below 18 should also read, it might help them understand the democracy and seat game better.

some of the sites have very good documentation of previous Elections also.

Congress & its achievements

http://news.rediff.com/column/2009/mar/27/guest-column-tarun-vijay-on-dynasty-and-the-varun-effect.htm

A good write up on congress and its achievements. Do read it to remember things we tend to overlook.

We lost 1,25,000 sq.kms to Pakistanis & Chinese during Congress rule, read the following article for more details
http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/tarunvijay/2387/53293/the-doctor-helped-in-time.html

Congress poll promise scares economists

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2009/mar/25slide1-congress-poll-promise-scares-economists.htm

As expected Congress demagogues are appealing to emotions of poor people which will have unfortunate logical consequences of increasing fiscal deficits and in turn debts of Government.

Unfortunately the most logical minded competitors are also forced to use the cheap grain card instead of promise of Development to make every one capable of buying the grain without subsidy.

Views Of Political Parties on Issues Facing the Nation Or their absence altogether

http://yourvoice2009.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4224305.cms

referring to the link from times web site. its a good work to gather the responses of candidates on major issues faced by Nation. Might help some of our educated voters who plan to vote.

What baffles me is that Congress hasn't given little more than one-liners and no response at all in some cases as they don't find issues important at all OR don't have anything substantial to mention.

Its actually very embarrassing for a party which has ruled India for most of the post-Independence democratic period to not have concrete answers for such important issues.

What probably explains there careless dismissal of the idea to provide answers is the fact that Congress Leaders are Demagogues. And their campaigning mostly seeks support by appealing to popular passions and prejudices Instead of Logical Developmental plans. classic example "Bharat ki widvah bahu" ( this is what Mrs. Sonia Gandhi used last time). Going just a little deeper into the emotional quote was my minds emotional response "woh bahu jo sasural ko apna ghar manane se bar bar inkar kare" this is based on the fact that Mrs Sonia Gandhi was offered India Citizenship more than a dozen times after marriage. Which, she promptly rejected 13 consecutive years, until she had political aspirations in India. Clearly she valued her Italian Citizenship more than Indian.

Another worth mentioning assumption of Mrs, Gandhi is that "Parliament is platform of hearing for personal complains". this is a personal unfortunate observation that I've had one fine day tuned in to live telecasts Parliamentary session on DD channel; where I was baffled to find Mrs. Gandhi complaining about parliamentarians ridiculing her on her usage of Hindi language in ongoing Parliamentary session. This scene took me back to the long forgotten school days when we used to complain to class teacher on some one teasing us in school. What imbecile Mrs. Sonia Gandhi needs to learn is that Parliament is platform to address issues facing the Nation not voicing personal complaints to gain sympathy.

Other thought which I find more irritating is the fact that Congress is still banking on its underprivileged, uneducated voters to elect it again. As it is sure that major educated salaried class voters of India will enjoy the holiday at home watching exit polls against standing in queue to exercise their right to vote. Why explain to those who won't vote, so why waste time in framing logical answers to Times Of India (I believe largest read English News paper in India) in turn a news channel only for the well-educated. Well if the educated class is not bothered of exercising its right to vote it deserves the Government that double taxes and robs it, falsely claiming to offer support to the underprivileged. Can't blame the uneducated as they cannot see through the false claims as they incapable to asses the statistics of growth and development. But I believe its our educated class' responsibility to explain every one around us to understand the futile claims of the Party which enjoyed most long tenure of power in India.

About our PM Mr Singh, as much as I respect his capabilites, sympathize on his inability of being able to use them. India might have developed atleast little more had Mr. Singh been allowed to use his brain power instead of party high commands' .