Stray Thoughts

In 1989, at Chitrakoot Inter College, Mahendra, a Hindu, Yasin, a Muslim, and Vishal, a Christian became fast friends. Mahendra and Yasin shared a room because Yasin faced difficulties in renting one as he was a Muslim. In that shared room, they navigated the delicate frictions of difference. They learnt to live together despite differences in food habits and other things. At first, Mahendra, a strict vegetarian, was aghast that Yasin had cooked meat. Then he insisted that cooking meat was okay, but the kitchen had to be cleaned thoroughly afterwards. Slowly barriers melted, and Mahendra began eating eggs. After college, life swept them down separate paths. Decades rolled by, and as the friends drifted apart into the quiet routines of work and family, the outside world grew increasingly polarized. Mahendra started feeling guilty that he had not kept in touch with his close friend over the years. He wondered how his friend felt in this changing social landscape. Mahendra felt a restless...

I started my professional career as a village doctor. Later I moved on to public health and my focus shifted to improving healthcare services. Today, I am in that stage of life which is called Vanaprastha , and I live in a small village in Uttarakhand. This allows an opportunity to reflect upon the lessons that I have learnt. At my age, I should not be speaking about the struggles of young people, but from experience gleaned over the years there are some things I wish to share with you. Living among and working with people from north Indian villages, I realized that women’s social status has a deep impact on their health. This understanding inspired me to study their lives, especially around their health-related problems more seriously and to work toward solutions. In this process, I also gradually started to understand the social life of men and about their so-called masculinity . How it is constructed, what factors influence it, and how its effects appear in society and affect them...

The alarm on his mobile phone gently buzzed beside Diwan’s pillow and his arm snaked out from beneath the quilt to kill it before it started ringing. He didn’t want to wake up his brother Mohan who had come home last evening. He quietly got out of the room, quickly poured some cold water on his face, and finished his morning ablutions. He changed into his shorts and singlet put on his sneakers and was running down the narrow mountain path to meet with his friends Kamal and Bhimraj who would be waiting at Kundan’s shop. It was 5.30 am and the skies had just about started to become pale behind the hills to the east. After a few stretches the three boys, or young men, since they had all turned 18, started slowly jogging up the rutted village road. It was turning cold as the weather had started changing after the rains, but the boys started sweating as they pounded the pot-holed tarmac. Every day for the last month these three boys had started their new schedule. Early morning and late eve...

 A few days ago I asked a student of Public Health what was the public health question that bothered him the most and he promptly answered “Why don’t doctors stay in villages?” He knew that India had finally breached the WHO standard of doctor:population ratio of 1:1000 but was concerned about the huge difference in the availability of doctors in cities and in villages. As a diligent student he had looked at the Economic Survey report of 22- 23 that had reported the favourable doctor:population ratio data as well as the earlier survey of 2018-19 that had reported that there were many PHCs without doctors. The Rural Health Survey of 21-22 had also reported that there was a serious lack of doctors and other staff in PHCs and CHCs, he said. Knowing that I had spent several years as a young doctor in the villages of Uttar Pradesh he asked me why I had gone to the village and why I thought doctors were not going there any more. As a young doctor I had initially gone to the villages of U...

I came across an article titled In Charts: The Sorry State of Fundraising at India’s NGOs in The Mint a few days ago. Three graphs highlighting different aspects of NGO funding in recent times, struck me. The first was how NGOs of global origin were receiving more funds than indigenous ones. The second was that the NGOs formed in the recent past were able to raise more funds, compared to those that had been established earlier. The third was that children focussed and community development NGOs received nearly half the amount of grants available, while NGOs working on women’s issues and social justice received about 1.5% of the pie each. I don’t for even once think that addressing chidren’s needs or community development are less deserving issues, but I was certainly surprised if not a little taken aback, that a country which is celebrating its 75th year, still requires non-Governmental resources for such core development issues. Why haven’t these publicly financed efforts delivered? W...

It was now nearly a week that the rains had stopped, and the sun was shining brightly in a perfect blue sky with a few scattered puffs of white clouds. This year the rains had started late but once they had begun had continued steadily for the last two months. It was a welcome change from the last two years when the rains were not only late and sporadic but had come down so hard once or twice as to cause landslips in several places in our village. After debating for some time, I decided it would be safe to charge the solar cooker today, and after loading it with rice and dal, I went back to my reading. I was sitting on our veranda with my back to the sun and was deeply engrossed in an article on the work of Claudia Goldin, who had just been awarded the Nobel prize in the Economic Sciences, on my tablet, when I heard the clang of the metal gate, and a voice rang out ‘Uncleji Namaste’ . I looked in the direction and saw two young women or should I say girls coming down the stairs after c...