Doctors Day!

Yesterday was India’s National Doctors Day and here is wishing all our lifesavers a very happy Doctors Day.

Much has been said about their contribution to healthcare from patient perspectives especially during the pandemic, but I want to focus today on the important and less discussed role of doctors in research.

Doctors conduct research aimed at improving overall human (or animal) health. They could use clinical trials and other methods of investigation to work on their area of research and research question. Doctors are vital in testing drugs, vaccines and clinical procedures. Quality improvement studies maybe less appreciated but are critical to quality of patient care.

Doctors team up with scientists from universities, non-profit organizations or the private sector to conduct research. Responsibilities of doctors include

1.          designing and conducting studies investigating diseases, preventions and treatments
2.          preparing and analyzing medical samples and data
3.          standardizing potency of drugs, their doses, methods for drug manufacturing and distribution
4.         coming up with needs, ideas for medical devices and ultimately testing them
5.         developing programs and trainings (including simulations) aimed at improving health outcomes
6.         writing research proposals and applying for grants and other funding;
7.          following procedures and ethical compliance requirements for patient safety.

Without all this work of doctors, patients will not be prevented from or easily cured of diseases and quality of life standards would not have been as high as today. Even if each doctor may not have ground-breaking research accomplishments, each paves the way for someone else and hence leave behind amazing legacies.

So doctors, thank you for all that you do that patients notice every day. Thank you also for your other work like research that might go unnoticed by general public on a daily basis but is still crucial to healthcare.

#nationaldoctorsday #medicine #research #clinicaltrials #health #healthcare #doctors 

Gifts to mankind!

Yoga is a physical, mental, and soulful discipline that promotes good health through breathing control, meditation, physical postures or asanas. Widely practised for over five millennia, Yoga promotes holistic development of the body, mind, and spirit; enhancing our senses, increasing flexibility, and achieving deep relaxation.

Yoga shows us a way of mindful living aimed at a healthy mind housed in a healthy body. June 21st 2021 marked the 7th International Yoga Day with an apt theme - “Yoga for well-being” coinciding with World Music Day.

Music is another important aspect of everyone’s lives, bringing about relaxation and promoting well-being. Let us celebrate everyday with increased awareness of and mindfulness towards these great gifts to mankind!

#Internationalyogaday #health #mentalhealth #mindfulness #relaxation #music #Worldmusicday 

World Oceans Day

#WorldOceansDay 2021 - June 8th

The theme for this year - 'The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods' says a lot about the idea of marking this international day.

Covering over 70% of the Earth, our oceans are a life source for all organisms. It is a main source of #biodiversity, #Food and even #employment. But as with all things #nature, we are depleting resources at an alarming rate, more than can be replenished and hence the need to start preserving and protecting our oceans. The world population needs to unite on this call for #sustainable management of the #oceans, strengthen international cooperation, and develop #research and #Technologies to attain this goal.

I leave you with a #poem written last year by my then eight year old daughter, capturing the essence and beauty of the lives in the ocean.

Under the Sea

Hello, come with me

Take a dive under the sea.

Before we go, Gather your gear

What’s your favourite fish? Mine is the seer!

Look, a jiggly jelly fish!

Heads up! That mackerel made a big swish.

Oysters can…... open and shut,

And that pile of seaweed looks just like a hut!

Dive in and make a big splash,

But be extra careful not to crash!

Dive in and make a big splash,

But be extra careful not to crash!

Now we’re down in the heart of the sea

Look! That eel is covered lots in Algae.

But that’s not just any old eel,

It’s an electric eel, if you dare to feel!

That leopard shark is a pro at swimming.

And that brown sea lion, is back flipping!

Bye Bye sea, Bye Bye sea creatures,

We absolutely loved your fun features.

Dive in and make a big splash,

But be extra careful not to crash!

Dive in and make a big splash,

But be extra careful not to crash!

COVID, India and multilateralism!

India is struggling with a huge spike in COVID cases in the last few weeks plus dealing with variant versions of the virus. This is not a unique problem to the country, but something all nations are facing. However, the huge population and less than ideal healthcare scenario in some states and pockets have led to current problems. Many of the variants of the virus were not originally from India, but from UK and South Africa. As viruses do, there is however continuous mutations and we no longer know which version we are dealing with or how many versions are going around.

I had feared such eventual results from the start of this pandemic for my country, just due to its sheer population and my fears have now come true. India had handled the pandemic with panache so far and supplied vaccines and other medicines to the rest of the world including HCQ to the US. Many of these were to developing countries at no or very little cost. Some countries of EU had contractual agreements for supply of vaccines as well and these are the countries who started having panic attacks seeing the crisis now in India. Understandable, but their reaction at a time of global emergency is not forgivable. Chancellor Merkel completely forgot to diplomatically sympathize with the people of India, while enquiring about the promised vaccines. Her poor choice of words shocked me and apparently a good many people and governments around the world. 

In case you missed it, here is what she said: “The truth is, we haven’t treated our pharmaceutical industry so well for many years…I am glad that we still have pharmaceutical production in Belgium, Holland, Germany.” Highlighting the issue of vaccine shortage, she said, “We now have a situation with India where, in connection with the emergency situation of the pandemic, we are worried whether the pharmaceutical products will still come to us.”

Merkel also cautioned, “Of course, we have only allowed India to become such a large pharmaceutical producer in the first place, also from the European side, in the expectation that this should then also be complied with. If that is not the case now, we will have to rethink.”

I would very much like to know how Germany and EU have "allowed" India to become a pharmaceutical producer? Did they come up with extraordinary contracts, privileges, tax exemptions on imports and exports or special sanctions? And such criticism after India along with other countries have repeatedly requested and proposed to WTO to suspend the IP rights over COVID medical supplies. This was blocked by the USA and EU among other developed countries. maybe if they did not care so much about profits, India can manufacture and supply more vaccines? USA has blocked a lot of the necessary ingredients being exported to India which affects the vaccine production. So, who is to blame really?

Clearly the Indian government, its people and many around the world did not see Merkel's comments as appropriate or the threat acceptable. Many geopolitics experts around the world have found her comments extremely patronizing and very backwards in thought. The Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India sent out a subtle tweet regarding multilateralism. The Embassy of Germany too sprang into action with a series of tweets expressing concern for the situation and promising full cooperation to fight the pandemic. Of course, they also claimed responsibility and bragging rights for two private companies Linde and TATA coming together to secure and airlift 24 oxygen transport tanks! Few hours ago, the Chancellor herself announced that Germany was in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a mission of support. What kind of support is not clear yet, but the pressure to support is exposed?

On the other hand, the Biden/Harris government has been under heavy scrutiny for their silence to acknowledge the crisis in India or offer any kind of support. Over the weekend, after being trolled mercilessly on social media for their tepid response to India's situation, the US government has finally released a statement of support and is working to send PPE kits, rapid diagnostic kits and ventilators. I still do not hear about suspending the IP rights to help in producing more vaccines or unblocking export of important ingredients for vaccine production, but hoping good sense and common sense will ultimately prevail! Even American citizens are tweeting their support and asking their government to release unused vaccines in storage and release patents, enabling easier manufacture of vaccines elsewhere. At least at the time of a global pandemic, one would think this should be fast tracked, approved and implemented without much discussion. 

Good luck India in combating this pandemic. This too shall pass and you will once again come out with flying colours. Stay strong!

#India #COVID #Germany #EU #Merkel #Biden #KamalaHarris #USA #Vaccine #vaccinemaitri #pharmaceuticals #SJaishankar #GoI #Externalaffairs #multilateralism #news #politics

Women leadership, biases and biology

Came across this interesting research which shows that women are better than men in a vast majority of leadership competencies measured - Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills (hbr.org)

The summary of the study is in fact misleading, stating that women are every bit as effective as men. Wrong. By this data, statistically, women are clearly better and more effective than men in every competency measured except two where very marginally men are better. 

The study points out another interesting aspect where women rate themselves much lower. This is no surprise to me, as I know people of my gender are masters at doing this. We constantly tell ourselves to be humble and firmly believe that there are many ways of doing the right thing or getting a job done. This somehow gives the idea to the other gender that we are indecisive or lack the capability to take immediate and rash decisions as they mostly do. We do lack the arrogance that our male counterparts seem to be born with and that society loves to encourage in men starting right after their birth!

A woman achieving success in a corporate environment is a mix of sheer hard work (many times more than men), talent (needs to be proved constantly to compete with men and there is no scope for errors at all), and multitasking like a super human being (you have no idea!). All this while fighting biases continuously, tackling them from subordinates and superiors. 

As the research tries to explore, why do most women step out of the race? Many times they are forced to! Senior leaders, men mostly and some women, are very united in their thoughts to not allow a woman to be elected into senior positions. Or at a certain point the women give up the fight. In spite of all the hard work, who would want to deal with constant pressures and biases and bad mouthing by colleagues for no reason except that she is a threat? 

After all this throw in biology. If the woman wants a family, she is doomed. Please don't try to give me the far and few examples of some women who have made it while also raising a family. They are a rare exception and the other 99.9% of women are proof of this. Women work with guilt all the time if they have kids. They plan their work while at home and plan other home errands while at work too. This is a superhuman requirement that only seems to affect women. Men are never expected to do this and they would never be bothered even if someone expects them to. 

This post - Why Women Do the Household Worrying - The New York Times (nytimes.com) - regarding the mental load for women to bear is very interesting and bang on. Cognitive labor divided into four parts - anticipate, identify, decide and monitor is solely left to women in most cases. 

Women also deal with fluctuating hormones everyday (menstrual cycle), pregnancies, menopause and many other hormonal problems at different stages of life. These are amazing statistics that in spite of all this, women shine in leadership skills. Kudos to all the exceptional women in any level of professional career and relationship status. What you all do is completely exceptional and magical!

#women #leadership #cognitivelabor #equalparenting #mothers #men

A rape, a fast-track court and a death penalty

Last month a five year old was raped by a 20 year old man. The entire process of investigation, filing of case, the trial in a 'Protection of Children from Sexual Offences' (POCSO) court and the awarding of death penalty to the accused was completed in a record 26 days. 

I am indeed happy and proud to read this news todays and hope such police officers and courts continue their exemplary work. While we recognise the obvious parties and their dedication in bringing this judgement to fruition, we should also laud the parents, family, friends and cousins of the girl who all played an important part in not only aiding the rescue and treatment of the girl, but also provided enough witness power and direct & circumstantial evidence to identify and arrest the culprit within five hours. 

This in a country which routinely feels ashamed to admit rape and protects the accused by not filing a case in order to protect the victim. Yes, it is a highly confusing and vicious cycle which enables most rape perpetrators to go scot-free!

This case is an example of all systems - families, villagers, police and judiciary - coming together to do the right thing in a very timely fashion. It will serve as a good lesson and send out a strong message to society at large. We applaud everyone involved and hope the POCSO courts continue their good work. Justice delayed is indeed justice denied!

Remembering the Trailblazers of Iceland on International Women's Day 2021

One of my most favourite historical events took place on the 24th of October 1975 – the day the women of Iceland went on strike!

90% of the women of the country, to demonstrate their importance, decided to not show up to work and perform their routine responsibilities for just one day. They came together in the streets to rally for equal rights. The strata of each woman in society did not matter; it did not matter if she was educated or not; it did not matter what kind of job she held. Homemakers, cleaners, white-collar employees, business leaders, MPs, girls - all rallied side by side. Rural women who were not able to physically join the rally in the cities, still followed their sisters and took the day off. I cannot think of another historical event that showcases the tremendous power, solidarity, and strength of women as this one does. This was surely not the first women’s movement however it was the most powerful, changing the course of Iceland’s policies with respect to women completely thereafter.

The country came to a standstill. Businesses had to close and, if open, dads had to take their children to work. They had to cook, clean, and be responsible for childcare. All for just one day. Things came back to normal the next day but with the knowledge that women are equal pillars of society. This proved to be a watershed moment, bringing to the fore the sheer force of and need for women.

Over the next five years, main changes included electing the first female president for Iceland - Vigdis Finnbogadottir – a divorced, single mother. Also, Europe’s first female president and the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as president. She was so popular, she remained president for the next 16 years!

While there were some reports of men not supporting this movement, most realized that they would come across very poorly in the face of such unity showed by the women. Some joined and fully supported the idea behind the movement. The husband of one of the main speakers was allegedly asked by a co-worker, "Why do you let your woman howl like that in public places? I would never let my woman do such things." The husband shot back: "She is not the sort of woman who would ever marry a man like you" (BBC). How we need more such men!

On this International Women’s Day 2021, it is important to recall such events, the strength it took, the mindset changes that it brought about in both men and women, and the empowerment it generated.

Let us invite all men to unite with the women in fighting for women’s basic rights, which are in fact human rights. Break your deafening silence and join the ranks of great men who were pioneers for women’s rights and liberation even more than women.

I honour some of such great men from India.

1)   Raja Ram Mohan Roy

The first Indian man to, as early as 18th century, work for upliftment of women. Worked to abolish the barbaric practise of Sati and fought to break the shackles of caste system.

 2)   Jyotirao Govindrao Phule

Activist and reformer, worked especially for women of lower castes. Together with his wife, Savitribai Phule, he started the first school for girls, despite being ostracised by their families. He advocated widow remarriage and also started an orphanage to reduce the incidence of female infanticide.

 3)   Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

The chief architect of the Constitution of India, Babasaheb is renowned for championing the rights of Dalits and their upliftment in society. Apart from this, he was responsible for the introduction of the Hindu Code Bill - which allowed women the right to file a divorce petition, and the right to inheritance.

 4)   Subramania Bharathi

One of the pioneers of modern Tamil literature who strongly opposed the caste system and worked tirelessly to uplift women through literature. He fought for the emancipation of women, against child marriage, stood for reforming Brahminism and religion.

Happy International Women's Day. But more than happy, let us make it a thoughtful and productive day, continuing through the years to come!