Author's note: This post was a runner-up in the HP Star Wars contest.

Your wait is over. It is finally here.

Generations have passed by as you yearned for the arrival of the true masterpiece. To make up for the days, you suffered the agony of mediocre fare in between. But a part of you still believed against all hope in the power of the Force. In the power of the one who did not just look promising but positively outshone the others. The one who stepped out of the darkness and into the light.


And the force has finally responded!

Yes, dear desi Knights of the Jedi, your dreams have indeed been answered. For lo! and Behold!
The Star Wars Special Edition Notebook is here. And while it is a magnificent beast, its evil illuminating red-backlit keyboard will do more than make you just stare at it with awe.


You see, the intricate Dark Side inspired graphic detailing done upon the body of this work of art, 8 GB RAM and the 1 TB hard drive are merely ruses by them to hide from you the actual secrets hidden within the notebook.
But fear not, for at great danger to my own life, I reveal to you today one of the darkest secrets of the Empire - the existence of the teaser of the trailer of the teaser-trailer of the trailer to the teaser (TeTrTe-TrTrTe, from here on in) of the ultimate union that even Mickey Mouse - who owns Disney (who owns Star Wars) - is unaware of.


Witness history unfold as we trace back the true Indian origins of the Jedi forces and the Evil Empire.

• A young boy goes to feed a stray pup & gets bitten by the pup's overprotective mother.
• A young doctor works fervently to save a patient rushed in to the casualty, performing chest compressions & mouth-to-mouth respiration. The patient is revived. His reports come back as Hepatitis B positive... as do the distraught young doctor's a few weeks later.
• A young woman joins a crowd to hold a late night candlelight vigil for an injustice in her city. She is molested by unknown members, faceless in a large crowd.
• An old man gives some change to a homeless man begging on the street. Staring at his purse, the homeless man nods to his accomplices. A dark alley away, the old man gets waylaid and robbed.

I wish these were rare instances but we all know they occur around us. People try to do a good deed and end up becoming victims instead. And that suffering extends far beyond the loss of money or a few bruises - it shatters their belief in humanity. In wanting to do a compassionate act. As they bear these scars, they will invariably hear the lament of those who care for them asking them 'what was the need to do it in the first place? You could have walked away and nobody would have been any the wiser."

And those words will sink in.
The next time you reach forward to give change to a man on the street, you will hesitate.
The next time you see a child smiling and walking towards a pup bouncing along the streets, your body will tense.

So what do we do? Do we stop caring for those we could help because there is a very distinct possibility in today's world that we could end up being victims of an assault or crime?
Is being good a bad thing in today's world?

My two cents:
I need to believe in rainbows and unicorns.
I need to believe that a good deed will 'pay itself forward' into random good deeds for others. And I need to believe that my small acts make a difference. Maybe not to the entire world but at least to one person's world.
I need to believe that compassion will win in the end.
Yes, I have been the 'victim of being compassionate' and the scars remain long after the incident but truth be told, I would rather be stupid & trust once more in love and humanity than turn cynical and bitter forever.

 A part of us invariably turns bitter but the battle is to not allow it to consume us.
Because I cannot see a world that is spiteful and lacking in compassion surviving in the long term.
I need to trust in people as individuals & not look at them as a collective or hate them all because of their race, religion or worse, simply because one random person hurt me in the past.
I cannot stop caring and helping you just because someone who shares some similar genetic traits with you used me - I can't be that spiteful to you. I may hesitate but I will not turn away.


Do care but also be aware. Do not hesitate to be kind but do not ignore the possibility of how it could backfire.

Pay the man on the street but walk by no dark alleys.
Join the candle light vigil but surround yourself with those you trust and have your back.
Save a patient's life but do not rush in without appropriate gloves and masks upon your own being.

What about you?

1. What advice would you give your loved ones in this regard and considering today's world where 'no good deed goes unpunished' is a very real thing?
2. More importantly (putting yourself in the shoes of the do-gooder) if you were a victim of such an incident, would you be willing to do it again?

Author's note:

Author's note: 
In view of the recent Zika epidemic, Tata Motors decided to change the name of their car (Zica) prior after we had the opportunity to test drive it. 
After a nationwide contest, the new name of the vehicle is now the TATA TIAGO.

Author's note: 
In view of the recent Zika epidemic, Tata Motors decided to change the name of their car (Zica) after we had the opportunity to test drive it. 
After a nationwide contest, the new name of the vehicle is now the TATA TIAGO.


As I travelled from Kerala to Goa for the test drive of the new Tata Tiago, I found it quite befitting that the vehicle that took me to the airport was a Tata Indica. It gave me the chance to focus on what Tata had offered previously. It also felt like a transition - moving on from the past and travelling towards the future.

Last year, Tata Motors rose like a phoenix again, the HorizonNext strategy and philosophy of theirs showcasing their earnestness to move forward with the times. Their first product, the sedan Tata Zest was a huge leap forward from their previous products (I was so impressed I convinced my surgeon to buy it and 1.5 years later, he still loves the vehicle) and was followed by the Tata Bolt.

Their new product, the entry-level  hatchback Tata Tiago has been kept under wraps for a while now. So when the opportunity to ride it before the rest of India arose courtesy Indiblogger, I found myself eagerly hoping to get selected so that I could see not just how the car was but also how the brand has evolved.

Having driven the Tata Tiago in Goa through both the serene streets and the hectic highways for over three hours and a little shy of 80 odd kilometers, I feel I am ready to give my verdict: 

In a simple easy-to-recall statement, The Tata Tiago is the best hatchback in its class by quite a distance.

You want me to justify this statement? 
Well, I am glad you asked. Because there are plenty of features that I wish to talk about during this review of the Tata Tiago that makes this car #Fantastico and #MadeOfGreat (their key taglines). I think you will come away just as pleasantly surprised and impressed as I was by the end of this post.

A bowl of divinity

With the best doctor team I had the privilege to work and live beside in addition to enjoying so many memorable after-work trips, often impromptu.

My 2015 Blog stats: Gee. I wonder in which month I wrote that post?

"One man alone cannot make a difference. " his friends warned him.
He smiled, determined to prove them wrong. This one man was an NRI - a non-resident Indian - who found himself disillusioned with the ruling government of his home country. Angry with the way they were treating his fellow Indians, he chose to return back to India and take on the system. He wanted to ensure that every Indian was treated equally and given their rights, something that he felt was not happening.
One man could make a difference and kick-start a revolution, he believed.

He found the land he returned to far more complex than the white and black image of right and wrong he had envisioned. His efforts to point out the flaws of the ruling government were mocked not just by the leaders but even by his fellow Indians who were loyal to the government. He tried to engage them in a debate but found no takers, people choosing to insult and accuse instead.
They questioned the sincerity and motives behind his effort.
They trolled him in newspaper articles and social media, asking him why he had sat cozily abroad when other events of differential treatment had taken place earlier in India.
They dragged out every photo from his past, analyzing every tilt of his body in each frame.
Neither his old fashioned dressing sense nor his crinkly features were spared as caricatures painted him a buffoon and a cheat.
If you don't like it here, get lost, they told him.

I always believe that one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about superhero comics from the DC and Marvel family is that it is meant essentially for children. Nothing could be farther from the truth, if you were to actually go through them. The story lines can be quite dark frankly, dealing with issues like death, rape, betrayal, alcoholism and moral choices; stuff that adults themselves often fail to deal with properly. Yes, to some level, the Marvel movies have been found guilty of being fun and light-hearted in nature as compared to their DC rivals with superheroes often taking a break in between bashing a villain to shout out jokes and punchlines. But the heroes residing within the comic book world are a far more complex breed, often suffering horrible personal traumas in their journey.

When Marvel first announced four Netflix shows based on relatively minor characters from their arsenal of heroes, fans were more curious than overjoyed. The first of those four shows (and easily, the most famous of the characters) Daredevil came out earlier this year and was phenomenally brilliant as far as TV shows go, giving you the best portrayal of the Man Without Fear till date.  It raised the bar for comic book based shows as a whole and won over the critics and the binge watchers simultaneously with its dark and edgy take.

So first things first, is Marvel's Jessica Jones a worthy follow-up act from the Marvel stable?

Simply put, Hell yes!

• This is as dark as superhero based shows/movies have gotten till date: the theme of being manipulated against your will, raped, tortured and forced to perform despicable acts sits uneasily when portrayed on faceless characters in a show. Here, you are forced to confront the aftermath of such acts from the point of view of the heroine herself as she learns to trust both herself and others once more.
• The overarching theme is one of power, both physical and mental (and how we choose to use it in our lives), overcoming trauma and redemption.
• The motivations do not extend to destroying the world or robbing banks for unlimited wealth. Here, it is all about inter-personal relationships between the characters - good and bad - and that gives a very intimate feel to the show as it progresses.

"Look at me."
He ignores my command, sitting still by the sill, from where he used to watch her every evening as she cooked.
He feared her presence as much as I had, not without reason. To the public, she was an angel - oh yes, indeed - but once the doors shut, her malevolence arose. Her disappearance had raised a few questions but I had sold the tale convincingly. She had left us and gone.
The public believed it. And in saying it over and over again, the two of us too had begun to believe the lie.
Until tonight when I returned home and he was sitting by the sill once more, his hair on end, staring beyond me at the empty chair she had always fancied.



"Look at me." I plead. He does not acknowledge my words; does not make any motion to come towards me. I hear the wooden chair creak and the cat's eyes bulge in fright before it scampers out the window.
I refuse to look back. It is just the winter. It is just the winter and I am alone in this house and she is gone and I alone know where she lies buried and nothing can harm me and...
I hear her breath beside me, wet and guttural, and a tear starts to fall down my cheek as she whispers three words into my ears.
"Look at me."

If you know me personally, you know that I tend to be quite laid-back by nature. There are a few things however that do get me riled up (fanaticism & blind beliefs among others) and one of them remains the increase in violence against doctors in India.

The immensely popular doctor-exclusive social media site, DocPlexus approached me last fortnight for an interview in view of the article I had written earlier in May that had ended up in the news. DocPlexus was in fact one of the first websites to share that post and hence spread the word to other doctors, resulting in them sharing it on their social media.
Of the topics they wanted me to talk on, the one that interested me the most was something close to my heart: Why Doctors in India need to stand United.



This was easily one of the hardest interviews to write on because I am used to the much more simpler 'How long have you been blogging?' and 'What is the origin of your blog's name?' type of questions.
Anyhow, I hope I did justice to the topic and I am glad to see many of my colleagues from the medical field were very receptive to it (comments from the original interview can be viewed here), considering I have chosen once more not to sugar coat my answers and call a spade a spade.

Chosen by Blogadda as one  of the best blogposts of the week

Excerpts:

What issues did you face that made you question the unity of doctors in India and compelled you to voice your opinion? 

Why do you think doctors in India need to stand united?

Paraphrasing from the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller,

This isn’t the same world as a generation ago. The doctor-patient relationship has eroded and it is a fact that we must accept. Just because violence is not occurring in your hospital today, does not mean that it will not happen tomorrow. Every act of violence you ignore emboldens the next one. We are seeing this in every aspect of our social and political life today as well, are we not? Unlike them though, for us, there are no voices – political or otherwise - to speak out simply because we are all caught up in our own busy schedules.

You can’t afford to live in a cocoon within your hospital, thinking that whatever is happening elsewhere will not affect you. Social media links us all today. Don’t underestimate – or worse, ignore – the potential it has to unite or divide. A guy seeing what he believes is medical negligence being committed by a doctor elsewhere will start to wonder about the integrity of doctors in his city too. It is human nature, isn’t it?

What do you think are some of the stressful societal issues doctors face every day?

Be frank. You know we are in a lose-lose situation presently.

When the government funding to healthcare gets slashed by 20% at a time when even an increase by 200% would barely be sufficient, that puts an untenable strain on the 31% of healthcare it caters to. The remaining 69% which forms the private sector of healthcare has to work without the subsidies and so naturally, the burden of paying a heavier price falls on the poor patient. When he has to part with a significant amount of his savings for an ailment (or sadly, a chronic one), that anger falls upon the ‘evil doctor’ who he sees as fleecing him. Since in his eyes, the patient is now paying top dollar, he expects that his diabetes be cured completely; that the single pill of amlodipine must be enough to control his hypertension once and for all; that two shots of nebulization must undo decades of a smoker’s lung.

Anything less is failure on the part of the doctor, even if he has explained the long term ramifications of his disease. And well, if the patient were to unfortunately die while in hospital care, it has sadly become opportune to blame the doctor for providing inadequate care or for injecting a wrong drug – the anguish at the loss of a loved one turns into rage at the one who they feel has failed them.

In a nutshell, we are “ONLY” short of functioning doctors, MBBS seats, post-graduation seats, primary hospitals, secondary hospitals, finances, beds, sterile equipment and medication. I can understand if we are talking about a third world country but this is supposed to be one of the most influential developing countries in the world with a foot already in the ‘developed country’ section. How can you hope to progress while leaving behind the healthcare aspect?

There is a rise in the incidence of attack or abuse towards doctors. What do you think are the reasons behind such violence? How should doctors raise this issue fairly to concerned authorities?

• An elderly doctor getting beaten up after a patient with a stroke and intracranial bleeding dies half an hour after admission. 
• A radiologist murdered because he refused to reveal the sex of the fetus. 
• A casualty officer beaten and having her clothes torn and threatened with rape because she followed triage instead of giving priority to a particular patient. 
• A gynaecologist beaten because she confirmed that a miscarriage had occurred. 
• A surgeon arrested because patients died in a government sponsored camp due to tainted pharmaceutical medicines.

At the moment, how can doctors protect their decisions as a medical professional? 

According to you, how can the cooperation between doctors be increased?

How can IMA, MCI help bring medical community together? Should medical professionals create pressure groups?

Related links to this topic include:
1. The viral post itself.
2. A earlier post from 2012 (published three weeks before actor Aamir Khan's infamous 'doctors' episode on Satyameva Jayate. Sadly, things would only deteriorate further for the Indian medical system from then till now.) - Doctors, Defend Thyself.
3. My stern pointers on how to end this cycle of violence against doctors (which would go on to be published in The Huffington Post)


Do let me know (here at the blog) what you think of it. More importantly, tell me about your own doctor-patient interactions. What impression did it leave you with - good or bad, great or unimpressive, crook or angel. I want to hear from you on this.

In Tamil Nadu, the aubergine is known as Kathrikkai. A traditional "Ennai Kathrikkai" is like a mini-burst of flavours in your mouth. The key components involved ideally include brinjals, a nice spicy blend of masala powders and the tangy tamarind bite all in one dish. It is usually served as a curry dish alongside rice or roti but here, we decided to make the blend of spices thicker and use it directly as a stuffing within the eggplant instead.

• Non-believers of any religion.
• Non-believers of your religion. 
• All Christians.
• All Hindus. 
• All Muslims.
• All Jews.
• All Sikhs.  
• All ( * insert religion * )
• All Beef-eaters.
• All Pork-eaters.
• All those who eat animals that don't chew cud / have a divided hoof.
• Those eating seafood which does not have fins or scales.
• All those who eat non-vegetarian food on Monday, Thursday or Friday.
• Anyone imbibing wine or alcohol.
• Anyone getting tattoos.
• Those who eat Any Food on religious days of fasting.
• Those who eat fruit from a tree within 4 years of planting it.
• Those Eating vegetables that grow under the ground.
• Those Eating eggs.
• Those Eating non-halal meat.
• Those Eating non-kosher meat.
• Those Eating non-vegetarian food.
• Those eating green coloured vegetables during specific periods of the calendar.
• Those who eat after sunset.
• Those who eat with their left hand.
  

Image source: Letters of Love

For those of you who do follow Humans of New York (HoNY) - you know that Brandon Stanton recently visited the most gut-wrenching aftermaths of the madness that has engulfed Syria - the displaced families forced to flee their country. His pictures and the stories that they brought with them were heartbreaking honestly and just reiterated the one truth that always shines through in every conflict started by political leaders -  that the true victims of war are the ones who did not even participate or support it.

Millions of families were displaced from their homeland and sent away, begging even today for refuge in countries across the world. Sadly, many families lost their loved ones too, including fathers, mothers and yes, even children.
I will not get into the details of 'who started what' in this war simply because it does not matter to me. At the end of the day, I cannot see a child in tears and think of her religion or nationality before trying to make her smile.

Luckily, where there are monsters who wear the robes of elected leaders, there are also angels who wear a more simpler attire and walk everyday beside us. They too hurt when they see the suffering and wonder if they can do anything about it.

Letters of Love

Pooja Pradeep is one of the latter group, an engineering graduate who decided she wanted to do something about it after watching the haunting images of the children from Syria whose lives had been ruined for a reason they could not even understand. Rather than become lost in the avalanche of initiatives to raise funds, this 23 year old decided she wanted to give the children something that would last - emotional support.

With this idea in mind was born the concept of Letters of Love.
The concept is this - all those who are willing are requested to send in 'happy' pictures of themselves along with a short 3-4 line message of encouragement for these children from Syria who now live in refugee camps and feel they have lost everything in their lives. The pictures will be converted into post cards and your words translated into Arabic (the native language of the children) and handwritten on to the back of the card.

The images could be anything positive:

• Your best smile
• Blowing a kiss
• You and your friends
• You with your pets
• You holding flowers
• Words - cheery and feelgood in tone, ideally, rather than taking on a sympathetic voice.
• Things to avoid - selfies (they may get cropped while converting into post card format), images with food or materialistic goods (it may hit a raw nerve for a child who has lost everything) and obscene gestures. 

Image source: Letters of Love Some of the 100+ images already sent in. You can find more at their Instagram and Twitter sites.

The idea is to deliver all these post cards via the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the children across various refugee camps by NEW YEAR 2016. So while you do still have some time, you don't have A LOT of time. The best part:
You really don't have to do anything. Just find your happiest photo, think of a few lines of encouragement you would like to share to a child who is scared and thinks nobody cares about him/her and write it down.
Then send it as a Facebook inbox message to Letters of Love. Pooja et al will look after the rest, including translation and couriering all of it by mid-December.

These are some of the images I have provisionally saved with the idea of sending one of them. Which one would you recommend? Or do you think you can make me do nuttier stuff to make a kid smile?

Imagine a country which is finally opening up to new technologies and discoveries. A land where the laws and even the leaders of the country govern the people and provide judgment based on the rules set down by their religious beliefs. 
Into this world comes a large headed, fat guy and he tells you that your religious books are flawed. That a huge set of people living in the country and suffering for no sin other than the fact that they were born different from the others is not right... that they don't deserve to be punished. This young man just wants everyone to be happy and not cry out of pain. And he claims he can do it.

The religious heads, both local and state, chasten him for his blasphemous words. The people he wants to help must suffer because they are different. If they cannot bear the pain, then they are mentally unfit to decide for themselves and others will decide for them. The religious bodies converge to insult and defame this young man, discrediting his words and actions. The fact that he is not one of their kind and that he is known to indulge in drugs makes him easy pickings. 
When his words were proven true, the newspapers actually choose not to cover it.

Sounds like India, 2015, does it not?