What are the AIDS Activists doing?

Few days back there was a news on all the news channels. A pregnant AIDS patient checked in the Government Medical College in Meerut (India) for delivery. To the surprise of the lady and her husband, she was refused to get in the maternity ward. Doctors refused to get involved in delivery process and the poor couple somehow managed the delivery in a discarded ward of the hospital.

This disgusting incident happened just 70 Km from Delhi. As we know Delhi, the city of AIDS activists, a city where there are more AIDS activists than AIDS patient. Surprisingly no social butterfly came in front and said anything comforting for the poor couple. The same AIDS activist become proactive when any globally recognized AIDS activists comes to the country. They are first to line up for receiving huge donations. I really wonder what they do from the money the get. Going to social gatherings is all they do? Isn't it their responsibility to do the ground work at the grass root level? If at all we want to remove AIDS, we have to go in depths.

As per the Supreme Court Law, no hospital can refuse to admit an AIDS patient. News channels as they always do, carried the story whole day (And forgot about it from the next day). Everybody blamed the heartless doctors. Even a child knows that AIDS doesn’t spread by touching. How come the enlightened doctors (who are supposed to be the most informed) don’t know it?

The days passed but the feeling of disgust kept running at the back of my mind. Last week i talked to my brother who did his MBBS from the same medical college of Meerut and without any delay i opened this topic in front of him. Then came up the story of other side. The story no news channel tells (Because they wan to show something that raises questions, rather answer queries)

Being a government hospital, only poor people come there for treatment. Very often they don’t even have money to pay for the medicines and the operating cost of the treatment, leave alone the doctor's fee. Even if these doctors waiver off their fee, who will pay for the medication. Most of the medicines that are made available for free to the govt hospitals are already black-marketed by the hospital authorities. And the hospital can’t offer any thing to the poor people. Coming back to the point, in 1-2 cases if the patient is very serious, some doctor may come forward to bear the expenses, but he can’t do it
for the 100's of patients that visit the hospital daily. And if this trend is set, many people who can bear the expense would try to look like poor and get the benefit of free of cost treatment at the expense of kind hearted doctors.

Case of AIDS patient is very different from ordinary patients. Very few people know that there should be a separate ward for AIDS patients. And that ward has to be properly equipped to avoid any infection to hospital staff and other patients. The above mentioned hospital is not equipped with such a ward. So technically it cant handle AIDS patients. In addition to this, for the delivery of HIV infected lady there is a standard kit used. That kit costs Rs 500. Again needless to say poor people can’t afford that and individual doctors can’t make this available for each patient. In some case patients don’t reveal that they are HIV infected (Fearing that doctors will refuse the treatment, or from the fear of social stigma). And poor doctors have to do a lot of test and treatment that involves dealing with patient's blood/urine/semen/saliva hence they are at constant risk of getting HIV infected from such dishonest patients. Last statement shocked me to the core. Imagine what a price a doctor might have to pay for the kindheartedness he shows in his profession, "A Death Sentence".

I would like to ask those selectively active AIDS activist, what are they doing for such cases. I hope someone of them comes to this page and spreads the word. We desperately need some infrastructure to fight with this disease. Protection is better than cure. Agreed!! But in the present circumstances only awareness won’t do. What about those who are already infected. If a doctor is not properly equipped, why will he go close to the patients and treat them?

Why men love gadgets more than they love gals...

Guys, I don't take any responsibility if following characteristics don't match the characteristics of your gal. Although i would like to take pride if their characteristics do match.

• Gadgets follow the instructions word by word.
• Gadgets turn on with in a second.
• Gadgets dont ask questions.
• Gadgets dont stop working if you dont get them new accesories every month.
• With time, gadgets become smaller and smarter.
• With in 10 mins you can know exactly how would a Gadget behave in which situation, just by reading the instruction mannual.

Chain-Mails

One of the things on top of my hit list is chain mails. I really get annoyed when i receive any mail that claims that it can get you good fortune/money in ur account or some thing like that. If i get that as spam its other thing, but if i get those from those enlightened people who i think are from a better educated lot, i feel like slapping them.

Most mails generally have the picture of some God and it says,"This mail should be forwarded to atleast 5 people within next 30 mins else the God will be furious at you and may bring you misfortune, however if you forward it to 10 people, you may get love/ 15 people, you may get promotion blah blah blah".... and since this much is not enough to inspire people, these mails contain the testimonials from some fake names. One would say, "I forwarded it to 5 people and received the good grades", other would say "i ignored it and lost huge amount in business". Whenever i receive such mail, i immediately send this mail back 10 times to the sender. How do people believe such things. As if god has nothing to do, but to look into the mail box of each person and reward them based upon how many times he has forwarded the particular mail. Seems God has become tech savy.

Second catagory is the mail that says,"Bill gates is sharing his fortune with you. Forward this mail and You will get $250 or so for each forward, and $240 for each subsequent forward and blah blah".. Again this type of mails also enclose testimony of people who accept that they got money depposited in their bank account. Some say that they got $2000 deposited in their HDFC account in Pune(India). I wonder how they deposited Dollars in Indian account. Another important point to note here is, these mails dont ask for bank account details Surprisingly without asking about the account details somebody put money in their accounts. And some wise people keep forwarding mails in expectation of big bucks.

Another kind of chain message was doing round in yahoo messengers. It said,"Yahoo people are sealing the unused accounts, so keep forwarding this message to ensure them that you are still operating the account". I have a question here. Cant the Yahoo guys simply track who is logging into the account to get assured of account's activity. How come only forwarding the particular message will notify them abt the account's active status? Some people say that Yahoo will give Nokia cellphone to everybody who forwards the message. Come on man!!! what's the logic behind it? At least think before you believe anything. If they start giving out nokia phones like this, they will go bankrupt in one day.

Now since you have gone through this article, Send this article to

• 10 people, and probably 5 of them will come and beat you up.
• 5 people, and nothing will happen to your life.
• Dont send it to anybody and you will have a nice day.
  

Cheers!!!

Blood Diamond

I watched Blood Diamond few days back. Needless to say, like any sensetive human being, i was shocked to know about the dark reality behind those shiny diamonds.

Ever since i read about the diamond mines of Africa(way back in 6th standard), i used to think that these people have got a lovely gift from mother nature. Just like gulf countries got the gift of oil pits. And those oil pits are fetching huge money to them, making them prosperous. In contrast to this scenario, Blood Diamond shows how brutally the natives of africa are treated to make them work for diamond minning. Their families are killed in front of them, those who deny working in mines are handicapped. Life has no meaning there, future doesnt exist for them. Every diamond that comes from those mines has caused blood shed of some family, has shattered the future of some kids.

Can this be stopped? Many people decided not to buy diamond ever after watching the movie. Will this cause bloddy minners to stop playing with the lives of people? When will it stop? I was surrounded with this question for few days. I got the answer from the punch line of a commercial ad that says, "Heera hai sada ke liye" (Diamond is forever).

Playing with emotions

Here comes the month of february and cupid starts aiming at wallets of lovers(I thought cupid used to struck hearts). 8-9 years back when i first heard about valentine's day, i could never imagine this phenomenon will take the shape it has taken today. It was destined to become popular since it had something do with love. As i see it, valentine's day is the day to express your love to the people you love. Be it anybody. But it is being publicized as the couple's day. Not even that, they have started declaring 2nd week of feb as Valentine's week. Last year at a reputed gift store, i saw days between 8-14 Feb categorised as chocolate-day,teddy-day,greetingcard-day,soft-toy day,rose-day,{another-gift-item}day. I know the reason behind 14th Feb. There was a saint valentine and blah blah... but who the hell created valentine's week? This is where i feel sad about all the phenomenon. All these big players in gift/card market are the creators of such unwanted days. I wonder why there is no Ice cream day in the valentine week. As far as my senses are concerned, ice-creams are no less romantic than chocolates/teddy or roses. Why there is no Pizza day? I find pizza very exotic at times. The answer is, simply because these gift stores dont sell ice-creams/pizzas. Once they tie up with Baskin & Robbins or Pizza Hut etc there might pop up a pizza day or a vanilla day in valentine week.
I dont give into these emotional traps... Never.... But what can do alone? She also has to understand right? Ohh 14th is fast approaching. I've got to get some valentine gift. Umm...and what it should be? A paper card? Nops thats not enough. What would i tell my friends? I gave her only a paper-card... Sounds so cheap. I wish there was a barter system. Emotions would not have a price tag then. May be a rose also? Seems i am not able to decide upon a deserving gift. Idea!!! lets go to some gift shop and pick something mushy from there. Afterall these gift shops are not that bad either. Today they saved me lot of time and emotional energy. Whats wrong if they charge for it? They are not doing a charity afterall.

Reality Shows-Drama Reinvented

One of the most visible shows on the TV nowdays are reality shows. And there seems nothing real on these shows except the emotions of poor viewers. There are some common characteristics of every reality show-

1. They claim to be the biggest talent hunt show in the country.
2. A bunch of judges are installed. Who are instructed to thrash the participant now and then, so that emotional Junta feels the need to keep these sad faces in the game.
3. SMS voting is a part of every show, that provides the basic food for survival for the shows.
4. Generally these shows dont bother to reveal how many sms's do they get. They only declare the results.
5. There remains a black sheep who despite not being liked by public keeps climbing the stairs to the top. No matter how many people vote against him, he keeps getting saved (So that Bholi Bhali Junta give another try voting him out and the producers of the show mint some more money.)
6. There are some deliberately stuffed ADs of the sponsers like mobile phone companies. The anchor tells the viewers that they can send SMS from Blah Blah handset also...(Amazing no? i thouhgt that we can send SMS from Landline only)
7. Most thrilling part of the show happens to be the elimination day. All they have to do is announce the name of the one who gets eliminated, but they do in with a lot more creative manner. And announcement of 1 name takes about 1 hour.All the the drama is carried till viewers get emotionally exhausted. Friendship among the participant on this days gives Jai-Veeru run for their money. Specially after the name is announced, the one who is eliminated tries to show that he was expecting the same, while others start the drama. They weep like Nirupa Roy used to do in old hindi movies whenever she lost her son.

Some times judges also take part in this by indulging in vocal exchanges.The most flawed part of this concept is multiple voting. A viewer can send as much votes he can to his favourite contestent. Here come regionalism into play. But its very unlikely that this is going to change because its all about earning money.
Long live melodrama. The audience who seemed to get sick of the Saas-Bahu Drama, has now found a new way of watching people shed croco teers - The Reality Shows.

Being a Bachelor

Beep Beep....Clearly this is not one of the most soothing sounds that you would like to listen to wake up with. But this is the tragedy associated with most of the bachelors like me. Unlike those good old days when mummy used to be our alarm clock, here i am breaking the day off with the irritating sound of my mobile's alarm. Yesterday night i spent whole 15 mins browsing through my Nokia 6600 and picked the smoothest tone to set as my morning alarm. but it seems nothing sounds pleasing when you have to wake up 8 AM in the morning. Not to forget there is nobody standing with bedtea in her hands.....You have to make it at your own. I hate early morning. Specially during these chilly winters, when coming out of blanket seems a tough decision. Alarm is still ringing, i put the snooze button and decided to take 5 mins of nap. For me this nap remains more satisfying than the whole night sleep.

8:05 AM
Beep Beep.... Uhh. not again, i was just getting in for a good,refreshing nap. Without thinking too much my hand automatically crawls below the pillow, navigates to sound of alarm, snoozes it again and i am off for another 5 min. Now i start planning for the day. I have a meeting at 9:30, for this i have to leave home by 9:10 at any cost. Umm Okey today i'll drive a bit quicker...rather i'll drive smartly. So i saved 5 more mins for my satisfying nap.

8:10 AM
Beep Beep.... Snooze..

8:15
Beep Beep.... Now its time i should think smartly. I have a B.Tech. degree from a reputed college, that prooves i am smart enough. 3 years of work exp also gives me confidence of dealing with choked deadlines. Hmmm.... so if i start at 8:30, i have to put immersion rod, then get freshed(8:40), prepare breakfast(8:50), shave(9:00), Bath(???)(9:10) Dressup(9:20) Have Breakfast (9:35).. this way i will reach office by 9:50... late by 20 mins Thats huge margin. No I have to get up now..come onn...

Ok just 10 more mins in bed and then i will race away. Yes i can do it, why not? i remember once i was in nth sememster, there was a similar crisis and that day i managed getting ready in 15 mins. i can surely do it today also.

8:30
Beep Beep.... I recalculate..may be i can skip taking bath...Afterall i took bath yesterday only. And there is no law that can force me to take bath daily. Okey.. so here i am realizing that bathing is not a critical issue, sacrificed it for another 10 mins of comfort.

Clock ticks past 8:40 and now i am in real mess. i have just 30 mins and the day hasnt started yet. Put the water for getting warm, Read headlines of newspaper. Switched on the TV ,its the last day of ashes, and England lost it 5-0. Started usual chit chat with flat mates. As i am preparing myself for the hunt i glanced at the wall clock.. Damn its 9:00 Now i have 10 mins. I can manage with skipping shaving, after all its friday. Still 10 mins is too less. Ok lets skip the breakfast. I'll have it in the office, after the meeting. So all i need is to sponge myself and get ready.

9:20
I am off to office. When you are late, the world seems to be in a hurry and the traffic lights seems to be slowest. Bad start of the day. I know the boss will already be there at the meeting and i will be 10 mins late. Its January, appraisal time. You should not put a foot wrong during these 15-20 days. I should have thought abt it earlier. Damn...
I read somewhere Boss is the one who is always early when you are late. Hope this gets proved wrong today. I am riding on full throttle.

9:45
I enter the office, quickly reached to the meeting room. Nobody is there except 2-3 team members. Meeting is delayed because so and so reason. It will commence at 10:15. Back to my workstation, cheking mails, orkutting outlooking....There comes the boss and i am as proud as i could because i beat the deadline of being in the office before the boss. Good Morning Sir!! I wish with a big flashy smile(Happydent !! its really working).
Boss: So guys can we go for the meeting? Actually i was stuck in traffic jam at ^*&($^($@^(^%)....(Who cares why he was late, does he care if i get stuck in the same traffic jam?)