I wanted to start this fortnight's brant with the sentence, "This country is going down the tubes", but then I decided against using that phrase. Primary reason: We were never out of the tubes, to begin with. So, a more appropriate usage would be "we're going further down the tubes". Which may not be a bad thing after all. Everything has its own thrills, and I'm sure going down the tubes has its share too. Remember the scene in "Trainspotting" where the guy dives into a toilet? He was alone. In our case, it's comforting to note that we're a billion-strong group, paddling down $h*t-creek with our chikungunia and dengue, with our bpos and kpos, with our prime minister and his dengue-infected grandkids and also our Italian momma.
You might be wondering why I'm all worked up about a few people dying of
dengue, chikungunia or some other disease in this country. Well, I'm not.
In fact, I kind of subconsciously liked the news about an AIIMS student
dying of dengue. Now, you are probably thinking I'm "sick". No,
I'm not. "He" was "sick", with dengue fever. (Mind
you, I'm taking the same risk as everyone else whenever I venture out of
my mosquito-netted, 24/7 mosquito repellent-burning house.) The very fact
that the premier medical institution in this country is set in unhygienic,
unsanitary environs and the leading docs and to-be docs turning a blind
eye to the filth must have been inspiring news to the guys in charge of
our local hospitals. License to dump more stuff all around the place.
Many of these flashy, new hospitals have the words "research institute", as in Xxpuri Hospital & Research Institute, attached to their names. What research are they doing? My guess is that they're conducting profound studies on how to strategically dispose off the waste at various critical sites in and around the city so as to breed mosquitoes and create more patients and thereby generate more business. Brilliant idea, but unfortunately it backfired, as they didn't have the medicine to treat the disease -- chikungunia -- that struck the population this time. And look who is smiling all the way to the bank? The homoeopaths (considered to be quacks by most allopathic doctors), while the "researchers" are left chasing the flies and maybe even mosquitoes, literally (eecha adi in Malayalam). Talking of hospitals, we also see lots of "multi-specialty", "super-specialty" prefixes and I'm sure there must be some that offer specialty of the day - Today's special: Removal of gonads.
A week ago the Kerala government said it was starting a "sanitation
drive" and would declare Kerala to be a garbage-free state on Oct.13.
I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read that. There were lots of
photo-ops with prominent government honchos holding hoes in front of garbage
piles (which, I suppose were transported there for the photo session).
Guess what? Today is Oct 15. Take a walk outside if you're in Kerala and
I'm sure you'll see the piles slowly starting to build up, maybe at a different
place than where you saw them last time. I'll tell you the reason.
Look at what they call it. It's a "sanitation drive". The stress
is on "drive". What they do is, take a pile of garbage, put it
in a truck and go for a "drive". After some time, driving through
scenic routes preferably, the garbage is quietly deposited at another place.
So, poor you, walking outside your house think, "The garbage is gone,
nice". Then the stink hits you. Follow the stench and you'll find
the new pile. Good luck.
Chikungunia update - The homeopathic medicine seems to have worked as I have survived so far. My mother and sister has been suffering for the past two months and there are many people around where I live with the same disease, though these are not counted or acknowledged by the government.