Bitter medicine

In his latest episode of Satyam jayate Aamir Khan raised the issue of healthcare management and related issues. The first issue was of unwarranted and improper surgery. There was a time when doctors were deemed Gods. Then came the Consumer protection Act and a whole lot of bitterness crept in. The legal system forced doctors to understand ‘acts of omission’ (not doing what needed to be done) and ‘acts of commission’ (doing wrongly what was done).It was emphasized that acts of omission were more easily upheld, and hence more punishable. I believe that is why the swing was towards avoiding being sued for not doing the needed, resulting in a surge of investigations and aggressive management, even surgery. This is not purported as justification, just my cause and effect analysis. Take it or leave it. Then there was the issue of unwarranted hysterectomies. There can be no justification for this whatsoever, but here is another scenario. Increasingly, would be parents and expectant moth

The April issue of  Reader's Digest published an open photo-editorial “Outrageous” on Corporal punishment in schools.It took me back to my schooldays in St Columba’s in New Delhi some 53 years ago. I joined St Columba’s in mid session in 1959 in Mrs. Clark's Class IV B. Post lunch break we used to have a daily Math’s tables rapid fire test. Each mistake warranted a cane stroke on the palm. After receiving five or six cane shots each day, I knew my tables by heart by the third day. My class teacher in the 9th, a Mr. Edward Seqeuira, was an expert grammarian and taught us English. The use of the cane ensured we knew our Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, verbatim. Once he was punishing a class mate who happened to be the son of a senior foreign diplomat. As he brought down the cane on the palm, the boy caught the cane and wouldn’t let go. All of us couldn’t help giggling. The matter reached the Principals office and the boy’s father was summoned and summarily told that eit