My wanderings - 16

Sometimes unusual experiences overshadow the conviction of an individual  and shatter his faith on established institutions and noble professions. It was month of June in early eightees when my mother fell seriously ill with high fever and my father, who was himself a Medical practitioner, after trying very hard to recover her, advised me take an opinion of some specialist.
I fixed an appointment with a renowned medical specialist of city. After waiting in long quees I was able to get a meeting with  him. He properly checked the pulse of my ailing  mother and I advised him that she was suffering from high fever from few days and apprised him with all the symptoms she was facing, which I will not disclose this time to reader, as the purpose which prompted me to write these lines will be defeated.
Doctor after making more investigations wrote in bold letters on prescription slip ...Pyroxia, which my father told me later  means unknown fever in medical terminology. He also advised for some pathological tests and prescribed Paracetemol for the time being. After few days he advised me for chest X Ray ,some more tests and prescribed some new medicine. This practice continued for days together. There were no signs of recovery and condition of mother got deteriated   day by day.  When ever I visited Doctor he would advise me for more tests or change  of medicine. As a layman I could guess that Doctor was either narrowing his field of investigation by advising for different tests or practising hit and trial method. I got very much desperate and once in a whim of desperation I laid my hand on some books lying on shelf. There was some very old book of father entitled  Medicine. While turning the pages of book haphazardly I found details of some common diseases and I got stuck up on the page entitled Typhoid  ,when I found  striking resemblance of the symptoms of the disease with that of my mother.
There was full detail of symptoms of the disease Typhoid , some of which I still remember. There will be high fever and constipation in one week and diarrhea in another. The disease relapses in weekly periods, either it will be for one week or for many more weeks. The colour of tongue will be white in the middle and sharp red on the edges and much more.The medicine prescribed for it was Chlorophenicol.
I immediately rushed to my father and apprised him with the details in the book. After reading the details my father got convinced and visited his friend who was also a doctor and after some deliberations they formed the opinion and prescribed the medicine named Chlorostrip, which was combination of two salts Chlorophenicol and Straptomycin.
After taking the medicine mother began to show the signs of recovery and after few days she was all right.
After that I never visited that Specialist and he is still a renowned  practising Doctor.

My wanderings _ 15

Some where I have read the definition of cigarette as it being  small bits of straw rolled  together  in a piece of paper with fire on one end and  a fool on another.
            'Cigarette smoking is injurious to Health' and  now 'Smoking kills' are the statutory warnings written on a cigarette pack alongwith photographs of various human organs affected by killer diseases because of  smoking are exhibited thereon.  Moreover, smoking is banned at various public places in India and separate smoking zones have been created in Airports and offices so that people do not get affected by passive smoking, which is considered more dangerous than active smoking now. But manufacture and selling of cigarettes has not been totally banned by Government due to obvious reasons of huge loss to the public exchequer and tobacco  tycoons of India.
In earlier days smoking was not considered as  a vice because  most of the people were smokers. People used to smoke in all public places like offices, cinema Halls and bus stands with out any objection from any quarter.  Moreover, smoking was considered as fashion those days. One of my friends who was a chain smoker told me  once that he was advised by Dr Ali Jan  to take  one or two cigarettes daily as a treatment for his indigestion and gastric ailments and which became his habit latter on. Most of the people were in habit of taking a  Cigarette or two before attending natural calls,  because they believed,  that it helped them in controlling  constipation and to keep their bowels clean.  But the times have changed now. Due to  public awareness of bad consequences of smoking and frequency of air-conditioning in most of the public places, smokers have taken a humble posture now. They try to smoke in secret places discovered by them which are far away from public gaze . Most of the people have left smoking due to awareness of the health  hazards of  smoking made public frequently by Government and media.
Usually the habit of smoking starts in very  young age and then it becomes a habit and a person gets addicted to it  by and by.  Despite of knowing the bad effects  of smoking a person is not able to leave it so easily. People try very hard to leave smoking and sometimes they are able to leave it for months and years together. But then they start it again on one pretext or  the other. Some body has said that it is very easy to leave smoking, I have left it so many times.
But whosoever makes a firm will can leave smoking with out any hazel  and majority of people have left it for good.
Once I came across a short story  in a magazine  written by some imminent writer the title of which was ' Cigarette' . The unusual title of the short story  created curiosity in my mind and   prompted  me read this short story.
The two characters of the short story were Father and Son and both were smokers. Once Father could not find a Cigarette for himself  in late night  and he  looked for a cigarette in the room of his son, where he could find a single cigrette on the side table of the bed. He took the cigrette and smoked it as he needed it badly. After some time when son entered his room, he could not find the cigrette there. He got annoyed and understood that it can be the handiwork of his father because he was the only smoker in addition to himself in the family. In a fit of rage he rebuked his father for this. The Father took this rebuke of his son, and that too for a meagre thing like a cigarette,  very seriously and this Incident changed his entire outlook towards life. He recollected how he has made sacrifices in his entire life for the sake of his son and the same son rebukes him for a single cigrette today.  The next day early in the morning, he called his lawyer and prepared a will  with the provision that all his property should go to some old age home after his death and did not leave a straw for his son to inherit.
The Son  with out knowing his father's decision,  came with all the high brands of cigarettes to please his father, but nothing could change the decision of his father latter on.

My Wanderings - 14

                       Voltaire, a seventeenth century french Philosopher  once said, " God has been invented by man."
  It was necessary to create one when there was no God.  While the evolution of Man was going on, man felt insecure and  he wanted someone to shoulder his responsibility and someone to take blame upon himself. Whatever happened to man, he blamed  it to God and reconciled with the theory that it was God's wish. But soon he learned the art to blame God for his misfortunes only and started giving credit to himself for his accomplishments. Whenever man felt dejected or depressed , he implored God for his well being. Therefore, creation of God was necessity  for man. It was up to nineteenth century mostly people discussed about the existence of God. But people don't discuss it  any more now. Either they have become believers or atheists.
But we can not so easily  ignore the fact  that  there is  definitely some eternal power  that  controls this whole universe,  which may be with or without form. It is also believed  by almost all the  religions.  But it is  ridiculous to beleive that different religions will have different  Gods. God is one and omnipresent ,  religions may be of any number. Shri Ramakrishna while in his quest for God tried to convert himself to Christianity and even to Islam. But he latter on understood  that  no religion is  barrier to realise God. God can be realised by a devout person believing in  any faith. Moreover, a Hindu will realise God in the form of Mata, Shiva or any other deity to whom he is paying  his obeisance. Similarly a Christian and Muslim can  realise God in the form of Christ  and  Mohamad respectively. Actually God does not require our obeisances or oblations. He is beyond these things. We prey to God only  for our own satisfaction and self realisation.
        Religions have been created  to inculcate morals and values in a man, so that he can live under some ethical codes and recognised institutions like marriage and family etc. Different religions may have different rituals but ultimate aim is  the same. If a person can realise these facts there will not be any religious intolerance between the two religions.  Religious intolerance in this world is due narrow minded ness of the persons believing in different religions. There is no fault in religions but fault lies in the biased and narrow interpretations derived by the people from them.
              Science  and technology has made tremendous progress these days.  But  it is only discovering the basic elements of nature which is only a tip of iceberg of the huge treasure already existing in nature.
Newton after contributing much to science became very religious in the later part of his life. He lastly  said, "I was but a small child playing on a sea shore finding prettier  sea shells or pebbles than my  other companions  but vast sea of knowledge remained undiscovered before me."
Voltaire wrote a book on Newtons principles, which made Newton more famous. He also in latter part of his life  admitted that there is some force controlling the whole universe.  Throughout his life he denounced catholic church for which he suffered very much. He was even exiled from France. His views  were not  also favourable on Islam.  But he adored Hinduism very much, particularly its Vedas. He forecasted  that West will always remain grateful to East for Vedas. In the last days of his life Voltaire also became very religious and said, "I am leaving this world adoring God, loving friends, not hating enemies but  detesting all superstitions"
Age   is also one of vital factors in making a person a believer or an atheist. In youth most of the persons are rebellious in nature and question the existence of God. But with the passage of time most of them become believers.
Ramesh Kaul
rkkaul.blogspot.com