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I sit by the window reading the newspaper.

I like to read it in parts, the front and the sports page in the morning, the page 3 stuff in the afternoon, and the other page-fillers in the evening. I open up the inside pages and begun reading. The familiar headlines spring in front of my eyes. Rain arrived some three days back. A month ago, some official had declared shamelessly,” Mumbai is ready for rains this year.” And of course, he is proven wrong in just three days. There is a bit of flooding, a bit of power cut, a bit of trains going off schedule! All routine, nothing worth making it to page one. The pages are filled with articles accusing, defending and counter accusing people, some ‘intelligent’ people telling us what to do, some stupid celebs telling us how they ‘enjoy’ the rains, someone dying, someone getting crushed, all on the same page! Then the ‘smart’ journalist turns to some ‘smart’ doctors who has goofed up big time.

There is an interesting article. Some doctor has operated a lady for some pancreatic problem, and having found one of the kidneys infected, removed it too. Now, the smart journalist has filled three hundred words, stating how the action is morally wrong, how it was removed without consent(!) etc. the newspaper claims to have a CT report stating that both the kidneys were normal in size, shape and density! Now that is what irks me. After all, a CT is an investigation; you cannot overtly rely on it! And if you open up a person, and find some organ affected, so much so that the life of the person might be at risk, would you rely on your eyes, or on the CT report?

A professor of mine once stated that being a doctor is a thankless job. People fall ill on their own accord, and they feel that the fifty odd rupees they pay the doctor are a catalyst (def: a substance or a condition helping in speeding up a process or a reaction) warrant them an immediate recovery. After all, it is just a sore throat, if the doctor cannot heal it in a nick of time, he is not worth it! I remember the prof. every time I see or read such articles.

It is this point of time, that I am horribly confused about what I want in the future. I don’t have an idea whether to go into the conventional PG stream, or to go for research, or for that matter, do something else. And here I sit reading things which disturb me immensely. We have money for IPL, for building statues, but not for the proper development of the city! I cannot complain. The people who decide such things are elected by people like me! At this juncture, when the storm is raging outside, and a similar one inside, I pick up the towel, and head for a cold shower.