RIFLE RANGE BOY

Courtesy: Zee News Stemmed a mob in Kolkatta cracked the skull of a  doctor  when his 76-year-old patient with myocardial ischemia and  arrhythmia succumbed to his ailment.  Incidentally, the victim  is  from a minority group.  That makes it difficult for politicians  to make the  'correct' decision . There was a time when it was noble to treat the sick and downtrodden. People who had 'failed' in life, i.e., failed to live up to the expectations beset by the society, would find solace is serving the infirm. It was considered virtuous to live amongst and care for sick. Father Damien cared for lepers, contracted leprosy and was canonised. Florence Nightingale spent sleepless nights holding vigil in her ward to minimise morbidity. Mother Teresa left the comforts of her hometown to answer her call among the poor of Calcutta.   In public life, many non-religious individuals sacrificed time and energy to establish medical ...

They are no more the weaker sex, the fair one, the one who plays second fiddle, the subservient one, the one to be seen but not heard. Sometimes, their presence was not even made aware as veils hide either their enclosures or their faces. Nanthini The world realised that second-classing half of the population was counterproductive. With the demand for extra pairs of hands in meeting the requirement of the times, the members all sexes were pulled in.  For the first time, women realised that they too could walk shoulder to shoulder with men. With generations of oppression and suppression, their DNA must have understood there was dire need to evolve to stay relevant. Now more and more of them came out their cocoons, demanding equal rights. The powers that be had to relent. By then, everyone realised that it was the way to go. The cake was big; there was plenty for everyone. Somewhere along that path, something went astray. Socio-economic rights were confused with biologica...

Funny, this thing called empowerment. The person who holds the strings to power stays in the background and remains incognito. He does not want to be seen to be powerful. He looks simple enough and abhors to be under the spotlight. He scorns attention. He is happy to be the invisible play-maker. http://clipart-library.com/ On the contrary, the powerless naively tries to exert his authority through the pompous display of his thoughts. He yearns to be in the limelight and wants to make his stand clear, loud and succinct his viewpoint. Even though his two-cents' thought is not cared for much by anyone, he feels contended. He had stood for his rights like it would change the course of the celestial bodies! Feeling contented that he has done the right thing, his life is blissful. He knows he would be rewarded handsomely one fine day. The puppet-master and the wise ones remain in the background, smiling to themselves, watching the drama unfold and probably chomping on their popc...

*Terms and conditions apply! The newest battle cry screams 'Black Lives Matter'. Of course, it is the only politically correct thing to say, that all lives are precious, irrespective of race, colour and class. Nice on paper, nice to hear but not in practice. It is an undeniable fact that some lives matter more than others. Rather than thinking that race, colour and creed are determining factors on who should live and who should just bite the bullet and disappear, I would like to think that money is the common denominator that saves everybody's skin in the end. In this time and age, the dictum 'Health is Wealth' no longer holds water. It should be rewritten as ' Wealth assures good Health'. As the cost of medical services snowballs by leaps and bounds, governments and health providers are running to cut cost. Even though the world has the technological know-how or at least have access to some experimental techniques to treat some potentially fatal il...