An Evening… :Diagnosed

I received a few critical reviews about the story I published last on this blog. I think either it has been misunderstood by the reader or told ambiguously by me. What ever be the case, I would like to explain a few points raised by my dear readers in best of my capacity.

The general points of disagreements were:

1) What doctor did in the story (not allowing the treatment of the patient being a suicide case) is professionalism of the practice.
2) Why to criticize America? Rather we should learn from them.
3) The story is not relevant in this era. It seems like a story to be told some 15 yrs back.

Very well. I will put forth some random facts about India here now.

The population: 1,129,866,154 (July 2007).
The population of farmers: Nearly 55% of the total population.
The % of population who is leaving farming as a career option: Approximately 50 million people who are part of farming families leave the profession every year.
The suicide rate of farmers: Over 15000 farmers per year.


To answer the first disagreement, let me state that “Suicide is NOT a crime.” To end one’s own existence in a state where one thinks/assumes/decides that he/she cannot survive anymore as a living being, should come under fundamental rights and not as a criminal offence as seen by the Indian law. Now, I understand that, in this perspective or any other (if someone chooses to disagree with me on the above mentioned point), everyone agrees that death or approach of death is always graver than a crime. I also understand that everyone agrees to the fact that the core of doctor’s profession is to save lives to the best of his medical capacities. So being rude to a dying patient is called professionalism? How? I don’t understand that. And even if suicide is considered a crime and treating such a patient is a police case, is it not a better option to start the treatment and call the police? To keep one away from the complexities of a police case and shrugging off the responsibilities of his/her profession is called professionalism? How? I don’t understand that either.

Answering the second disagreement, I would say I never criticized America in the story. If at all I commented on any thing it’s the way we Indians take our lessons. A NRI, who has never seen India, and who never cared for its people, is loved and cared by the citizen of this country like anything. His/her case will be talked about at every nook and corner (remember the march for the astronaut in the story!!), but we never feel like talking about someone who grow our food. We don’t talk because that fellow never did his agricultural work in America. We believe in copy-paste. We don’t learn - a general case in point is all the realities shows on television these days. And if at all someone is trying to, let me warn, you have chosen a wrong teacher. Now I criticize America- for giving us the wrong lessons and Indians- for happily taking it. There are better teachers, if we so desperately need one. Look at Japan. And why, why can’t we learn our lessons by ourselves? We are one of the oldest civilizations in the world, if my history knowledge is still ok. A leader is born out of innovation; the way we are, is the way followers are made.

Now go up and read the facts again. Do they make any sense?

They do. Let’s see how.

Let’s assume the suicide rate is not a concern. But the kind of effect it has on the employees in this profession is something we should be concerned about. If the population in this particular profession is depleting with such a rate, it’s dangerous to all of us. Food is something whose demand will never ever decrease (See the rate with which we are increasing in number). If there are less people to grow there will be lesser food to eat. Simple Logic. What are going to do then? Eat softwares - we are best at producing them these days? Import food? From where and at what cost? If a nation is not self-reliant for something like food, it’s bound to be colonized and ruled.

So ultimately it becomes the question of my own survival and not the farmers. So I say it’s my problem if a farmer is taking up suicide because it affects my food availability in some way. And hence no story can be stated to be “It seems like a story to be told some 15 yrs back”, if it related to my existence in all these modern years, can it be?

The biggest joke is - it’s not something we can’t do about their problems; but mere ignorance. So what are their basic problems? Unavailability of Irrigation facilities during a drought. Safeguard for deluge. Good seeds and fertilizers.

And we can’t provide solutions for these, sorry, we are not interested. We can devise atom bomb, we can send our men to moon, we can be excellent exporters of softwares; but we can’t provide solution for their basic problems. The joke is done. Please laugh. Laugh until you realize that the joke is on you, on us.