MEMORIES OF OLD BOMBAY AND BOLLYWOOD

I hope to make this a series. So I'll begin with some description of time and place.

My earliest memories are of the 40's. British days. We lived on a street in Bombay - Dadar Main Road - which can be called the Bollywood of that time. There were three film studios on that road - Ranjit, Shree Sound and Ranjit Movietone. Stars and lower denizens of the film world went by all day. The view from the third floor verandah of Sakina Building was interesting. Across the road was a south Indian restaurant - a vishranti griha - where, outside, they would be twirling yellow jalebis into hot oil or deep-frying bhajias. At the street corner a stone's throw away was an Irani restaurant which wafted out the scents of pastries and bread pudding.

The restaurant radios (when radios were scarce) would competitively blare out film music. And then suddenly they would be outdone by the air raid siren. It was war time. The busy street would go quiet. People would vanish indoors and black curtains would be drawn across windows in all buildings. The only people on the street would be men of the air raid patrol - with red ARP bands on their arms.

Yes! It seems a totally different time. It was! Another century!
(For more INSIGHT stories see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest Myspace blog is: DO WELL-OFF INDIANS LIVE IN AMERICA IN INDIA?

UNASKED QUESTION: IS GLOBALIZATION SINKING?

Can globalization go bust like those giant companies and banks?
Can the kind of globalization where the successful go into excesses of greed and celebrations - ignoring the hundreds of millions who have nothing - last?
The answer is obvious.
Surely, economics needs heart to sustain globalization.
(For more INDIA REALITIES and other INSIGHTS, see the blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog in Myspace is: OBAMA: THE TRUE COLOUR OF HUMANITY.

PRETENTIOUSNESS AND FAKERY - INDIAN STYLE

In 'rising' India pretentiousness and fakery form the great divide between those who have something and those who have little or nothing .

Pretentiousness escalates up several levels.
The lowest involves flaunting mobiles, T-shirts and jeans...and, yes, hanging out in new cafes, sipping expensive coffees with names unheard of here ten years ago.
Add a new mobike and it's owner is ready to travel to the next level.
A shiny new car - the bigger the better. The owner's strut changes. He leans back - and, whatever little walking he does after that, he walks like he is lord and master of India.
The next level is attending fashion shows and going for holidays abroad. And the biggest fun for this layer of society is coming back and describing all the wonders they have experienced to listeners who have never even visited Delhi.
The next level is more exclusive. Big businesses. Success makes them tipsy. They step out to acquire foreign companies and compete with the giants of the world - with no thought of doing anything for the millions in India who are unsure of their next meal. These big businesses totally miss the point that the poverty level in India is 365 dollars a year, whereas in the U.S. it is 22,000 dollars.
Perhaps, to this height of bliss and pretentiousness, we can add Bollywood movies. They have reached a delirious state where it is virually impossible for an Indian boy and girl to meet and fall in love anywhere in India. They can meet only in the Swiss Alps, in Central Park, New York....etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! There's no limit to fooling oneself.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog at Myspace is WRITING TRUTH: FAILURES OF THE HEART UNRAVEL GLOBALIZATION - KEY EXAMPLE, INDIA.

TRAVELLER'S THOUGHTS

As I travel through developed democracies, a constant question in my mind is: What does India need to do to join these countries?

And observing routine life in those countries reinforces the idea that success in IT and BPO businesses alone cannot take us there. Nor can a flood of fashion shows and beauty contests. Nor can a sickening excess of song-and-dance in TV shows and Bollywood movies.

Indians need to be able to look at themselves self-critically. India needs a change in mindsets, a really progressive world view, to become a developed democracy.

(For more INDIA REALITIES stories see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest latest blog at Myspace is: MY BOOK SAYS: FAILURES OF THE HEART UNRAVEL GLOBALIZATION - KEY EXAMPLE, INDIA.

KNOW AND EXERCISE THE PATIENT'S RIGHTS: A KEY TO PREVENT TREATMENT BLUNDERS

This blog is a follow-up to the previous one - How To Protect The Patient's Rights In India.

The Know Your Rights section of Doctor at Home explains how treatment errors can be prevented by exercising a patient's rights. Errors happen for a variety of reasons, including carelessness, overconfidence and lack of updated information in the treatment system.

A constructive attitude is essential on both sides in exercising the patient's rights. It is best done by creating mutual patient-doctor confidence from the beginning. That means open communication between the doctor and the patient or his/her family.

Exercising the patient's rights not only helps prevent errors, but contributes to good treatment.
(For more INSIGHT stories, see blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog at Myspace is: INDIA CRIES OUT FOR AN OBAMA: ELECTION THEME - VI.

HOW TO PROTECT THE PATIENT'S RIGHTS IN INDIA

In Doctor at Home, a Fitness-Health book written by my wife Jagjit and me, a whole chapter describes the patient's rights. And the doctor's. I haven't seen even a mention of rights in other Health books written for the public in India. We have many illiterate patients with no clue about their rights. And, often, educated patients assume that once they go to a doctor or hospital they themselves have no part to play in treatment decisions. The result? Doctors are increasingly conditioned by the situation to take the patient for granted..

Recently, I went to my dentist. I needed a root canal and minor surgery for a cyst. On the second day my dentist finished the root canal. Then an unknown came over, said 'I'm Dr. X,' and pulled on his gloves to do the surgery. I could have got up and made a scene. Instead, I said, 'Can you tell me a bit more about yourself?' Later I took up the issue with my dentist.

A patient's rights are essentially basic individual rights. But the crux is his right to know who is going to do what on him in advance - except in an emergency. A patient has the right to talk to the doctor and, if he's genuinely uncomfortable with the doctor's credentials or a procedure, to seek a second opinion or even go to another doctor.

I have given a small example of how patients' rights are often overlooked or violated in our country. The situation will change only if patients and their families are aware of their rights and stand up for those rights. And that can at times save them a lot of sorrow.It's no use blaming everything on fate. I am compiling examples of the pain caused to families by ignoring patients' rights - to make my point clearer in the book I'm working on.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog at Myspace is: SHOULD COUNTRIES BE INSURED AGAINST BIG CEO GAMES? :

CAN INDIA MATCH HER SLUMDOG'S LUCK?

Yes! Yes! Yes! She already has! For IT (which suits her youth's talents) to become a major world industry was indeed huge luck. The failure of her right wing bigots' efforts from Independence to exile the English language from India - because it was not a part of "our culture" - was added luck.

Now India requires concerted endeavour to lose that luck! But that effort is going on .With great vigour. A blind eye to the millions living in slumdog conditions. Growing numbers of unlawabiding politicians. Growing numbers of unlawabiding policemen. Growing numbers of bigots (those who targeted English earlier) now assaulting even a girl and boy or a wife and husband for showing a simple sign of affection in public, like holding hands - because it is against "our culture."

People with poor civilisational values are doing their best undo India's slumdog-like luck.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog on Myspace is: SLUMPUPPIES CRASH OUT OF WONDERLAND!