Ramdev’s acrimonious encounter (1) with Indian Medical Association: is there a need to deride other systems of medicines than the one you are trained? Yes, only to those practitioners who are threatened of their livelihood by the competitors and would thus wish to scuttle their business by sullying them; But for those, who suffer from ailments, it does not matter who cures, the ones that ‘would’ cure is the most sought after!

Many a times, it is by the word of mouth (and now social media) that picks up the better ones. How else can one explain the crowd that thronged (2) in ‘krishnapatnam’ village near Nellore district in AP, hearing a wonder cure ‘eye drops’ for covid? There were many, reportedly even with oxygen support, waiting in ambulances, leaving their ICUs, among the thousands that swarmed to get this ‘traditional’ preparation! Does it not show the extreme distress? People are driven from pillar to post with the sole objective of ‘எத்தைத்தின்னால் பித்தம் குறையும்’ syndrome!

Being an ardent follower of Homoeopathy over three decades, I am witness to many wonder cures for melodies such as jaundice, shrilling cries and tantrums of babies, mental depression, etc., that allopathy could not alleviate! There are countless cases of reliefs using Ayurvedic treatment, like the one for joint pains. My chronic Achilles tendonitis, of heel for which I was advised surgical procedure as the possible cure, could get relieved with Chinese foot massaging! I would only advocate an open mind for any ailment! Human body has evolved over eons with checks and balances, which is difficult to decipher by any one completely as yet!

Unlike the west, the east and far eastern civilisations, that dates back to centuries, have a host of concoctions to offer for any ailment. Many a times, it is wholistic unlike the ‘modern’ system that primarily relies on ‘signs and symptoms’! Though these old systems have survived centuries with unrecorded successes, acrimonious challenge by the evidence based allopathy, continue to bewilder the empirical evidences by the legions of these traditional medicines. I do not know, why?

With seemingly a large understanding of the genes in the recent times, people tend to arrogantly believe, there is cure for any melody; they can even deliver ‘designer babies’ meeting the required ‘specifications’! I would not be surprised if one day we end up in ‘Frankensteins’ through this genetic engineering, that has entered into therapeutics; fortunately this research is either banned or restricted in many ‘saner’ countries! Who knows – even covid virus might have been an outcome of one such research!

The audacious front line researchers of the cutting edge research apart, there are a still quite a few medical practitioners who understand the limitations of their own system and do not mind advising the “goods” in the other; leave alone some of them even furtively ‘cross’ prescribing, though it may be a ‘bitter pill’ to swallow for the ‘purists’!

This puddled topic reminds me of a sanskrit satirical verse by Neelakanta Dhikshidar who lived in the 17th century, in his ‘kalividambana’ on doctors:

that translates roughly into: ‘A doctor can treat a patient as he likes but he should prescribe strict diet restrictions. If restored to health, the credit goes to the treatment and if otherwise, the blame can be passed on to non adherence of dietary regimen’. To be precise, you can continue to be a successful doctor, once you know how to coverup the failures!

Is this not true even today? Does this not depict the present dilemma of the society?

Credits:

1. https://youtu.be/tIxlH0JOoUA

2. https://youtu.be/CcZE0ofp7R4

A few small countries have claimed near normalcy while a few bigger ones have feigned the same by unmasking, even-though the infection has not really abated. As per WHO guidelines, a country is considered infection free only when, no single case of new infection is reported for two incubation periods. That is, zero case for a month or so. This must be when no external constraints are in force for mobility and social gatherings. It doesn’t appear so anywhere in the near future.

Festivals, travels and elections are common activities of any free country in today’s world. Majority of the population engage in these activities in normal life, but these routines do not appear to be in the horizon.

For example, consider some of the recent election exercises: US had one to choose its president in the fag end of 2020. Neither the pandemic nor elections deter with the presence of each other. USA never had a relapse from infection ever since its onset in early 2020 is another story. Elections too were held in the four major states in the more populous India in April 2021. While the numbers in India were indeed quite low in March 2021- real bottom of the wave at less than 10000 cases a day, 10% of the September, 2021 peak! TPR, the test positivity rate, also was quite low, at less than a few percentage. In April 2021, it had a phenomenal raise during the busy the multiphase schedule. The election mela ended in 2nd May; the peak of the second wave in the country was on 13th May, after a typical ten day incubation period of this virus. Look at the numbers today when many states are still under lockdown: 70% of the daily infection of the country’s 220 K, is from six states, three of the four states that had elections are in the list. Only Karnataka, Maharashtra and AP being outliers – Have they paid the price for being close neighbours?

Now take the case of festivals: How come the kumbmela states, UP, Uttarakhand are out of the woods so quickly ? The congregation should have contributed to the infection as much as election bound states – but didn’t.. why? would it have been the large scale testing that could have led to scuttling of the menace? could be! UP tests over 3.2 lakhs a day even today and it’s positivity (TPR) is less than just 1%. Even at its peak of infection the TPR was not above 18%. Uttarakhand Could keep its positivity at its peak below 24%; today it is at less than 8%. Both the states had peaks around 10 days after the festival time.

Why the election bound states could not manage well? Poor testing? For strange reasons, the authorities did not comply to the warnings to ramp up the testing in TN, Kerala, WB and are paying a heavy price now. TPRs were all above 25% and sometimes dangerously even close to 30%? WB even today continues to be well above 25% while others are just less than 20%!

Conclusion is any congregation would contribute to a wave; no doubt! As long as there is any remnant of live virus around, there is a looming threat! From the experience of Mar-May 2021 period, it can be safely concluded that even a TPR of less than 1% in random testing would not guarantee a threat free world! Till immunisation of the whole public is done like in small pox, the threat would continue: virus would not only thrive, but mutate and can potentially become resistant to the existing immunity!

Kiran Majumdar, the chairperson of Biocon, tweeted, “The vaccine situation in India is like arranged marriage. First u r not ready, then u dont like any, then u dont get any”!!

Health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, responded equally sportively, ‘everybody will get their match, soon’.

What is the ground reality?

Out of 35 crore Indian population in the 45+ segment, more than 11 crore have been already vaccinated at least once, which is a significant 30%! Assuming only 60% are either willing or targeted to get vaccinated, central government has to plan for another 11 to 12 crore which is quite doable in the next three months at best, considering the production capacities of Indian suppliers and the commitments by way of advance payments of purchase orders. This would largely protect the most vulnerable population in the quickest feasible time period. The increased gap between the jabs is a blessing in disguise.

This leaves 59 crore adult (18 to 44) population, that is left to the responsibility of states. The immunisation program for this section has taken off in a subdued way since the beginning of this month, and till now 50 lakh or less than 1% have taken the jabs, in the last 15 days. It is quite likely that a significant fraction would have already had asymptomatic infection and have antibodies, since they unmindfully venture out often even during lockout periods.

Though health is a state subject, centre has proactively pushed the vaccination program and has set in place a system. The state leaders who engage in slanging matches have the responsibility to vaccinate only this segment of population. With the liberalised policy, a fraction of this population would anyway get vaccinated by their employers and the affluent few who can afford can pay for the jabs in comfort. Those elites who have faiths only in the latest western technology as reliable and safe compared to the ‘under developed local varieties’ can prefer Pfizer or Modena at a cost! This apart from satisfying their ego would also relieve the states’ responsibility and burden to an extent.

This young adult population, being active in the social media, embarks itself into dictating terms with the ever willing anti-government bought out press, which is apparently irrational. There is no need to issue a global tender for foreign vaccines. The government can collectively bargain for the best reasonable price as these vaccines cannot be procured on lowest bidder basis!

The global tendering by some states is either ill-conceived or knee jerk reaction or playing to the gallery!

Could a cursed land that was destined to be a desert be transformed? Yes.. Technology and motivated leadership could!

The legend is as follows: Lord Krishna picked up Maata Rukmini from Avanti and on way to Dwarka on a Chariot, invited the ‘Angry’ Rishi Doorvasa to accompany them on the Rath and be their guest in Dwarka. Rishi Doorvas wanted Rukmini and Lord Krishna to pull the chariot instead of the Horses and then only he will come. Having agreed, they started pulling the chariot. In between Rukmini became thirsty and wanted water. Lord Krishna pressed his leg hard into the earth and water came oozing. Rukmini and Krishna drank the water and started the journey, Doorvas became angry since he was not offered water and gave curses (shaap), one of that was ‘The water the Dwarka Kingdom will be salty and not fit for drinking’.

To reverse the curse, Modi tirelessly struggled for over two decades to bring water to this parched Saurashtra region by implementing the Sardar Sarovar Narmada project. Some 3.77 lakh ha gets Narmada dam water, flowing directly to the farms through open canals.

SAUNI, the link project, fills the irrigation dams which already have canal networks to channel water to farms. Four trunk lines — Link I, II, III and IV — will take water to the 115 dams spread across all Saurashtra’s 11 districts. Pumping and piping networks are themselves engineering marvels, for example, two sets of pumps of 13 tmc per hour capacity at 30m head. Sourashtra region is 60m above Narmada valley!

Modi transformed Saurashtra in a decade.. More than being proud, I am envious of not having such a leadership in other states!

No fighting with the upper riparian states if you manage the water resources intelligently!

Salute to the great visionary……