Skip to main content

All in a day’s work!

This was one article which came through on it’s own even as I was sitting in my out-patients post-christmas.Shreeram Singh entered the OPD with classical symptoms attributed to tuberculosis.As the normal trend of questioning goes ,I asked him if he has a history of migration .He says he’s just been back from working as a weilder for ACC cements in Wadi in Karnataka.I asked him how the living condition there was ?He said four labourers shared a room 12 feet by 8ft with a single window….they had a fan.Did anyone in the group have cough?Crinkling his forehead,he thought for a while and he said yes he remembered one of the labourers who used to cough consistently.My next question was did you have medical facilities provided by the company and the answer was no.Apparently the company has a hospital but only the permanent employees are allowed to avail the facility.Immediately a question came to my mind.exactly whose lot are these hordes of rural population who migrate to these industrial areas to earn their living and provide cheap labour to the industries?
The government has to seriously introspect and act if they want to just stop harping on the rural-urban divide and make that critical difference to the face of rural India.This is the impressionable population whose way of thinking ,the way of living is mouldable because they are out of their comfort zones,they are also the population which are potentially going to influence the way the people live back in the villages because they would be ‘the know all’, ‘see all’ man of the world who has a mighty influence on the way the youngsters think in the villages. Even the industrialists need to make a paradigm shift in the way they think-profit is good but keeping the bigger picture in mind would make a whale of a difference to the way they function and flourish,from becoming just another profit-making venture they would become a great industry.
As it stands now,the migrant labourers when they come back from the bigger cities get back a meager amount of money but bad habits in plenty.. drinking,smoking….and ofcourse those dreaded diseases..!Yes they get back one more thing ,the bollywood culture…!what a big role the film industry can play in making in-roads into these simple minds.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Image of Christ.

 There is nothing more scarier than a heart that has hardened .I was talking to Mary the other day,infact weeping with her There is a deep restlessnessness inside.Thank God for it becuase it shows that I have not resigned myself to the way things are.I was telling her I miss the deep experience of seeing the image of Christ and the compassion of the Holy spirit which just used to overwhelm  my heart when I saw the image of Christ in people ,situation and the creation. What is the image of Christ?It is a body marred and maimed to bear the sin of the world.it is a voice that did not speak in protest against God the father,who actually planned it all before the creation of the world,not against the people who maimed Him ,flogged Him,drove the nails into His hands and feet to satisfy their sinful nature.The image of Christ is a body broken  to the utmost yet given to feed the very same people .It is a love that did not count the cost. I am a person who does not put too much v...

Gift of Life...

  I  realise  I am a beauty junkie. Always on the lookout for the experience that brings tears of awe to your person. I guess it is all right because there is just one life to live and as would have it I would like to live it to the fullest.I  have travelled a bit and I have a whole bucket list unticked yet.Some things I call it my short life,I still cherish forever. I have had the experience to meet up and get close to exceptional people ,some of them extremely rare species who stick out from the crowd. One such friend during my early years just looked across the bench to me and said something which has stuck with me forever. Having been to Auroville in Pondicherry, one suddenly exclaimed,' There is a glass crystal in Auroville, when the sunlight falls on it  it reflects the light beautifully and it is breathtaking to say the least. You should see it.The crystal reminded me of you.'I have not seen that crystal till date but I remember the eyes of the person whe...

Just Listening.....

All of eighty and delirious ,the old Pandit shuflled for his Janeu(Sacred ceremonial thread according to hinduism which the brahmins tie around their person).Two devoted sons tried to wrestle him down to his bed.He had a diaper on ,and a catheter but was insisting deliriously that he wanted to use the toilet.Suddenly he picked up his thread and put two loops around his ear.The sons interpreted that he wanted to pass stool.This was a learning for us. Another time another man in his eighty came in screaming with chest pain.He had extensive anterior wall MI .My junior colleague managed him well.His ST elevation had reverted ,his pulse rate was well controlled and he was comfortably seated by the time we saw him for the morning rounds.By the afternoon he complained of chest pain and then went into a supraventricular tachycardia but his hemodynamics held, so we medically managed him.He was by nature a comfortable man.He shared that he was ready to die.We got talking to him one afternoon.He ...