Sunday, December 05, 2010

Not sure which disease is actually dangerous

Along with the admission letter of my B-School, I also received a form that I was supposed to get filled by a doctor. the form asked the doctor to verify if the candidate has had the first injection for Hepatitis B.

Given the importance that the institute was paying to this particular disease - mind you, of all the prevalent diseases - I thought this is important. So, I approached a doctor for the vaccination required. He told me that it is a two stage process - one injection now, and another 6 months later. I thought that I will start the process here and the institute will definitely ensure that I get the second dose 6 months hence, when I will be in a place that care about this particular disease so much.

To my dismay, it was costly affair. The injection was for around Rs. 2,000/- at that time. However, I went ahead and got the injection as well as the form filled from the doctor. I submitted it along with other documents to the institute.

The expectation was that there will be many like me who will have had only the first injection by doctors at their place. The second part will have to happen at the institute for all of them. So, there will be a camp one day to ensure that we fight this dangerous disease and it does not proliferate.

There was not even a single word on this for the 2 years I spent at my B-School. The institute might have just been following government orders around this, and did not seriously care about Hepatitis B as a disease. On some research, I found that this disease suddenly gained prominence in the country and did not seem to be much of a threat for Indians - neither were there cases. But this fear of the disease was suddenly all prevalent. I am sure more of my batchmates would have been affected by diseases like malaria etc.

Some diseases seem to get prominence quickly, even though they might not be too much relevant. Not sure why this happens. Is there some conspiracy behind this? I believe we need to think about these issues more. Have we started taking all these things for granted?

Shri Rajiv Bhai - An Inspiration

You know how there are a few people that make a strong dent in your life - if not in your actions, but atleast in your thoughts. While some of them are the usual suspects - parents, teachers etc. - some others are a little hard to imagine.

One such person for me has been Swargiya Shri Rajiv Dixitji. I became aware about him and his thoughts, may be around 10 years back. His ideas were something which none of the kids of my age/generation would have come across. It was not something that you can get from your teachers, parents etc - in fact many of them might want to keep you as far from them as possible.

I met him once when he was in Mumbai. I had heard his speeches through cassettes, but wanted to hear him in person. So, me and my brother went to this place in Mumbai where he was supposed to be part of a cultural function. Though he did not get much time to speak on that occasion, as always he influenced the audience, even within the short span of time.

Whoever knew Rajiv bhai said one thing for sure - His life followed exactly what his preachings were. He was one of the greatest patriots that I have known of in the last few decades.

What made Rajiv bhai's lectures appeal to everyone was the extensive background research that he used to do and at the same time, the simplicity in the way he used to explain these things to the audience. His knowledge was unmatched and he was inquisitive enough to get to the reason for why things happened, before he can form an opinion.

I do not follow most of his teachings, but hope to bring atleast some of the things in my life and thoughts.


I will encourage you to listed to the thoughts of Rajiv Bhai by downloading his speeches. If you have time to listen to just one of them, then this is something which is highly recommended.

He always preached (and followed) to use one's native language as much as possible. I try to do that on a daily basis for verbal communication, but I have been too lazy to make it an important part of my written communication. I should have ideally written atleast this post in Hindi, my mother tongue. Rajiv bhai, mujhe shama kar dena.