I just read a post on the blog Sid Knows Why.
This post takes a good stab at analysing the recently published report in Mckinsey Quarterly on Medical tourism. Some of the arguments given here are very appealing. This shows how there is a risk in this industry of hype overtaking reality as credible resources are also being challenged on their research.
Good luck Sid. Also read Ted the Med which throws further light on the topic.
I had a very daunting drive today to work. I am now Tree-Dodge(TM) enabled.
Donald Trump should shortlist 16 hawt chicks for a season of Apprentice. As he is so fond of grouping unlike people, the grouping here be blondes vs. brunettes. Set them on wild tasks, let everyone have some fun.
One of my good friends has started a medical tourism firm in India called Value Medicare. I think medical tourism is a fascinating industry and I wish him all the best.
Value Medicare provides medical and recuperative services to patients traveling to India. Medical Tourism is a rapidly growing industry in India and Value Medicare is one the leading players in this market. They provide the patients access to cost effective complex medical procedures such as knee replacement surgery, hip replacement surgery, cardiac by pass surgery etc. and elective procedures in dental and cosmetic surgery.
Visit the website www.valuemedicare.com
Katherine Frank took six years to write this meticulously detailed account of Indira which invited a lot of flak (more) due to her brief focus on the intimate vista of Indira’s life. Though I am not trying to pull chestnut out of fire here but I would like to opine that there is hardly any conclusion that Frank has drawn in her book about the rumours of Indira’s possible involvement with her German teacher at Shantiniketan, or then M. O. Mathai or Dinesh Singh or Dhirendra Brahmachari, not to mention P. K. Haksar or the entire male population of India. The misapprehension in the Congress camp is an old age thin-skinned habit of trying to see demons where they are not. If anything, this is not an attempt by Frank to show Indira’s feet of clay.
The book is written with the precision and exhaustiveness of a scholar, footnoting sources ubiquitously. However, there is little, if any analysis of these facts, possibly due to the reason that as a foreign biographer, Katherine does not come close enough to have the sensitivity to analyse the life of Indira.
“Indu boy” was born in the same month as the Russian Revolution and she always felt that her life was linked to the trajectory of history. She had a tough childhood due to her mother’s illness and finally sad demise; and even more challenging married life with Feroze. Indira grew upto become a gutsy politician who took draconian measures to suit her political motives. Charged guilty of illegal practices in election campaigns, she refused to resign and declared a state of emergency. However, Frank supports her authoritarianism by saying that she “was guilty of hubris but not megalomania.”
Further reads: Pupul Jayakar’s Indira Gandhi: An Intimate Biography (1993) and Inder Malhotra’s Indira Gandhi: A Personal and Political Biography (1991).
Casting:
Loser (that has to be me literally, no matter how interesting this story might be): with his head on the chopping block
Hard core jat thulla (like all other traffic cops crawling out of woodwork unsolicited): on hunt for a prey who can pay through his nose
Story
Loser is driving his car going from Gurgaon to Delhi. HCJT probably condenses out of the atmosphere and catches Loser talking on the phone while driving.
Loser is a seasoned hustler whose past is tinged with such tragedies. With experience he has learned the ropes. Even before HCJT can smile ear to ear on his latest prey, loser sheepishly takes out his wallet and slips the biggest bills (of which there is just one) into his pocket leaving behind deservingly apt amount for thulla in his wallet.
HCJT opens up his ledger which is unnecessarily a tombook. Loser can without losing bet that HCJT hasn’t used one ticket out of it ever. HCJT demands 1,500 rs. referring to dhara do sow cheh of some lousy penal code. Loser decides to cut the long story short and opens up his wallet infron of HCJT. To HCJT’s (and to Loser’s) surprise it has only Rs. 75 left with the most soggy bills on this planet. HCJT turns belligerent with such insult immediately suggesting closest ATMs as the final solution. Loser continues to crib like crazy about how he is very poor and has probably Rs. 200 total in his all ATM cards combined. HCJT becomes starry eyed at the mention of Rs. 200 but is also cognizant of the possibility of spoiling his average time taken per customer. Like an American shopkeeper, he offers a deal – I can take Rs. 200 here but if you take me to the ATM, I need Rs. 500.
Loser is a one trick pony but I guess one trick it all it takes sometimes. Loser asks HCJT if he has Rs. 500 change which shocks him. HCJT feels like a dork but does not make any bones about the issue. Loser and HCJT exchange bills leaving Loser Rs. 200 poorer and continue doing what they were doing 5 min. ago.
This was definitely a prolonged hiatus in the gunfire from across the border. I raised my head and saw a buzzard taking a solitary flight. I tried to run but could barely totter. The precarious conditions which I had previously undermined had enlivened my macabre fears. I scratched my stubble and hollered at the top of my voice out of frustration. There was not a soul.
I had never believed colonel’s stories, always considered them to be his attempts at praising defence life by jacking them up a bit. It was his stab at breaking the drudgery of his lame job, which he claimed he carried out pretty doggedly all year long. The visitors’ diffident manner was always turned outwards by his enthralling, fervent anecdotes of his apparent heyday. He would slide down comfortably in his chair and cast a spell on the listener with stories of his marksman capabilities. He was a sniper of some order. But, I never wanted to sassy and tell him exactly what I thought about his trash stories. His face would have gone livid and he would have become furious. I always kept listening, which made me feel feeble sometimes. I was not the kinds who would sass him but listen patiently, smile appropriately and show my fake interest whenever he was so forthcoming. I used to think to myself, correcting his ways is like squaring the circle – a hopeless, meaningless, vain undertaking.
Once, colonel was cracking jokes about a black woman who had been gang raped by a group of troops near the docks. “The girl can’t tell her hole from a hole on the ground anymore”. This set Xobile’s teeth on the edge. But the colonel would not stop; nothing could make him realize that Xobile might take umbrage at his rudeness. I knew Xobile would soon go stark raving mad and strangle the colonel. I ordered him to retire to the barracks knowing his ephemeral bad temper. I knew he would forget this by the morning….
Grapes of Wrath is perhaps the most noteworthy and famous novel based on the economic downturn termed as “Great Depression” in the US in early 30’s. The story revolves around an Oklahoma family amongst hundreds of thousands of poor people migrating to California in search of living. The state of Oklahoma was particularly hit during those times by mechanization of agriculture and Dust Bowl drought.In the story, the Joads sell off their house and land to move from their hometown to (deceptively) promising land of California in vain hope of finding a living. Living frugal, almost miserable lifestyle the Joads foraged fruit picking farms to earn as little as 2.5 cents per hour. All kind of mishaps occur during the course of the journey and afterwards; both grandma and granddad pass away on the way, Rose of Sharon (the daughter of the family) gives birth to a stillborn child, Casy – a preacher who had accompanied the family on this errand is killed for leading a strike against low labor costs. Tom Joad, the lead protagonist, a guy with a short temper in return kills the guy who attacked Casy. Tom had returned from the prison after getting a parole, convicted of killing someone in a fit of fury in the beginning of the story.
The immigrants are despised in California and looked upon as a potential threat by the owners of farm lands. Casy and later Tom finally understand the need for cooperative, as opposed to individualistic, solutions in times of misery.
Verdict: Serious, depressing, inflicted with misery.
Richard Feynman, the author of this humorous book about incidents of his life is the Nobel Prize winner for Physics in 1965. Feynman titillates the reader with his entertaining anecdotes which depict stratospheric brilliance of this physicist. Jack of all trades is more like it- he fixed radios at the age of 12, went to MIT, Princeton, Cornell, was a safecracker for fun, an artist and an amazing prankster. What is more, he also had his way with pick up lines for girls in the bars.Verdict: This is an extremely entertaining story about a scientist with characteristic brilliance, intelligence and uncharacteristic versatility. Will have you in stitches.
“What’s it going to be then, eh?”
ACO is the story of Alex and his droogies Pete, George and Dim who sneak out of their homes in the night to indulge into unlawful activities like ultraviolence, rape and looting. Alex is ditched by his accomplices while committing a crime and jailed. While in the jail, he volunteers to get enrolled for a human aversion therapy trial to escape from the bound of the prison. But to Alex’s shock, the aversion therapy treatment turns out to be an atrocious nightmare. He is acclimatized to hate any violence and becomes so docile as a result that he cannot even do self-defense if someone is attacking him.The novel is written in a narration form with Alex being the narrator. The language used by Alex and his droogies ‘NADSAT’ is invented by the author and is a combination of English and Russian.
Verdict: Great story depicting trials and tribulations in the life of a teen renegade. The language NADSAT makes it a bit difficult to read without referring to its glossary.
