Nothing is NEW :For those who think that Atkins was the first to give us "low carb" diets just imaging eating the diet that army surgeon John Rollo inflicted on his patient Captain Meredith in 1797!

 Nothing is NEW :
For those who think that Atkins was the first to give us "low carb" diets just imaging eating the diet that army surgeon John Rollo inflicted on his patient Captain Meredith in 1797!

I too feel this way

I have spent most of my working life looking after patients with, and researching, diabetes. It has been an absorbing journey. As the Birmingham physician John Malins wrote in his 1968 textbook:
"The more diabetic patients one sees the more difficult it becomes to present the simple picture that so many readers like. Diabetes is a disorder of such infinite variety that it becomes impossible to say that this always occurs or that never happens . . . today a diabetic clinic provides the widest clinical range of any specialty in medicine with metabolic, vascular, neurological and psychiatric problems outstanding. In addition there is a chance to enjoy some of the pleasures of general practice which arise from long acquaintance with many of the patients. The chance, all too frequent, to ease the last years of those whose health is slowly failing calls for all the resources of the general physician.4
The effects of diabetes are indeed highly variable, as the following examples show."

 a similar picture was seen among Asian Indians, where about 4 per cent of those in rural India were diabetic compared to 23 per cent of Indians living in Fiji or Leicester, England.

 A Victorian physician had even described diabetes as ‘one of the penalties of advanced civilization’


Although  For many many years we were taught  that EBERS papyrus is the  first mention of Diabetes it  is really debatable

The earliest description of what might be diabetes is in an Egyptian papyrus of 1500 bc. The entry consists of the single phrase ‘a medicine to drive away the passing of too much urine’.1 Frequency and retention with overflow are also mentioned, making it uncertain whether what is being described is an excessive volume of urine (polyuria) or  excessively frequent urination (frequency) as from infection or a bladder stone. The Hindu physician Sushruta, who is thought to have written in the sixth century bc, described a disease of honey urine. The diagnosis was made by tasting the urine or noting that ants congregated round it—the latter is still one of the commonest ways of diagnosing diabetes in Africa today. The disease was perceived by Sushruta to be most common in indolent, overweight, and gluttonous people and ran in families. Physical exercise and vegetables were the mainstays of treatment in the obese, while the lean, in whom the disease was regarded as more serious, were prescribed a nourishing diet

Robert Tattersal Diabetes__The_Biography

" I feel that the doctor- patient relationship boils down to getting and giving attention. Failure of a patient to get the attention of the doctor is a major and sometimes tragically underestimated phenomenon that figures in his or her recovery. Is not it attention-grabbing that makes infants cry, children whine, wives fume, husbands pout, bosses fret, employees complain, and teachers nag? Attention does much to determine our sense of self-worth. We value it more than we like to admit. Attention is such a precious commodity that people attempt suicide for it. People have killed because they are attention- denied for too long."

Subjugated and independent what is the difference?

'Our local Congress leader Tenneti Viswanatham hoisted the Indian Tricolour flag at the stroke of midnight—a historic moment, before which we were subjugated, and after which we turned sovereign. Was that all so simple, straightforward, smooth? For a moment, it looked too abstract, intangible, symbolic, intellectual, away from the realm of the ground realities of life. I got up the next morning to the same reality that was there the day before. At streets, the common people were not even talking about freedom. In fact they slept well that night and were having no hangover. Life was absolutely routine and unchanged for them. Semantics apart, did I feel any change?"

For many years I found my mission in living in a free India. What does it really mean to live in a free country? What does constitute freedom for an individual? Are the people crowding the roads not free? Free to smoke, free to litter, free to reproduce irresponsibly, free to shun the light of reason and education and live under darkness of superstition, black magic and occult. Are people owning land not free? Free to use it as a tool to govern the lives of others rather than as a business asset and capital resource.. Are people holding government positions not free? Free to derive personal profit from every public issue. In fact, I found no real evidence of some real extraneous source of injustice or exploitation, something bad that can be truly attributed to the British Rule. To me everything appeared perfectly intrinsic, like a bacterium taking over the entire organism. The departure of the British, however, created a void as far as the target of my aggression and restlessness was concerned. Instead of dwelling on such deeper and depressing questions, I thought it better to focus on my studies without any further delay or newer distraction.

A Doctors Story Of Life And Death

By K. Subbarao

It was learning a new language.

There were about fifty students in the first year batch of MBBS at Andhra Medical College With me. Almost all of them were from Andhra region, representing both urban and rural areas. The difference in their backgrounds was very explicit in their daily lifestyles and mannerisms. While students from urban areas would take the formal wear of socks and boots to as far as the bathrooms and use English even in their most intimate conversations, students from rural background would carry contemptuous aggression for their urban colleagues and miss no opportunity to let them down. There was a strong underlying divide between the two groups which would manifest at any given opportunity of power play as trivial as election of the mess secretary or selection of the volleyball team. I could not identify myself With any of them and thus won the acceptance of both or perhaps was considered to be of no consequence. Five students were admitted in the quota created for refugees from Western Punjab. Many of my flagellant colleagues discovered some repelling body odour in them. I found none and became in fact quite friendly later With S.S. Bhalla, one among them. During the familiarization Phase, Dr. Shepherd interviewed me. A British, Dr. Shepherd always had his personal secretary when he talked to natives to fill any possible gap that might arise between the ideas expressed in his Oxford-accented English and the mumbling of novices in their Telugu-tainted version of his great language. During my interview, the personal secretary, almost tanned in the reflected glory of his boss,  whispered into my ears, 'Wish him". I said, "I don't fish", mistaking his advice for wishing  Dr. Shepherd to a query about fishing. I always wondered as a child about the relevance of priests during prayers. My confusion became further compounded. I had interest in Mathematics and considered Biology as an unavoidable burden. In the first class of Biology, I was asked to lift an earthworm. I looked around for a fork, inviting laughter from my colleagues and a frown from my teacher. "How will you handle a dead body if the touch of an earthworm is frightening to you?" somebody said. More as a challenge than for the logic of the contemptuous comment, I lifted the earthworm and kept it on my palm. At night I kept feeling the creature's movement in my palm.  even after washing my hands a dozen times. Slowly, I started enjoying observing different forms of living creatures. Within Six months, I extended my Circle of acquaintances from earthworms to rats, frogs and rabbits. While going for our lecture classes we passed through a corridor that housed the Museum of Anatomy. A part of the museum was used to perform autopsy. My curiosity used to lead me to the museum where I would observe corpses in silence. The cold and stillness of death would fill me With a strange kind of realism. The clever manipulations, pretensions, Plots, pride, prejudices, greed, so familiar and almost omnipresent, would appear so strange and remote in the presence of the human corpse. Most of our teachers in the Medical College were Tamil doctors. I developed instant fondness for my anatomy professor Dr. Krishna Rao. He was very tall, Six feet four inches, and lanky. He would utter the fairly long and tongue-twisting medical terms describing human anatomy, mainly adopted into English from Greek and Latin, With such ease and fluency that students used to Circle around him. Barring a turban, I used to see Sarvepally Radhakrishnan in him Unfortunately, he Ieft the college after about three months of my joining. My tryst With medical English, however, continued. The features of human body visible to the naked eye make morphological anatomy, the hidden ones that need a microscope involve histology. The basic framework of the body is provided morphological anatomy, the hidden ones that need a microscope involve histology. The basic framework of the body is provided by a large number of bones that collectively form the skeleton. A Doctor's Story of Life and Death The flexible tissue around them is cartilage. Two bones are united together by fibrous bands called ligaments. The flesh is muscles. On getting an electrical signal from brain they contract and thus provide power for movements. Running through the intervals between muscles are blood vessels, lymphatic vessels and nerves. Blood vessels are tubes through which blood circulates. The vessels that carry blood from the heart that keeps pumping it to maintain circulation, to various tissues are arteries, and the ones that return this blood to the heart are veins. Tissues, arteries and veins are connected by a fine network of microscopic vessels called capillaries. Lymphatic vessels are delicate, thin walled tubes, difficult to see. They run alongside veins and have bean-shaped nodes in between called lymph nodes. Running along With them are solid chord-like nerves that carry electric impulses from and are solid chord-like nerves that carry electric impulses from and to the brain. In addition, there are specialized organs called viscera. Some of the viscera are solid like liver and kidney, some are tubular like intestines or sac like stomach. The viscera are grouped together in accordance With the function to form various organ systems. So, respiratory system provides body With oxygen, alimentary or digestive system absorbs food, urinary system removes waste and genital system contains organs concerned With reproduction. A major problem in describing anatomical relationships is that they keep changing With movement. When a patient is standing, his head is his uppermost part and feet the Lowermost. But when he is Lying down, both head and feet are at the same level. So, we were taught to presume that patient is standing upright, looking directly forwards, arms held by the Side of the body and palms facing forwards With thumbs Lying outwards. Now, anything that is nearer to the front of the body is anterior, and anything behind it is posterior. Anything closer to the head is superior to anything below which is, thus, inferior. The vertical plane that divides body into right and left is median. Anything nearer to it is medial and away is lateral. So each eye is anterior to the corresponding ear and is also medial to it. A doctor would, therefore, say that the eye is anteromedial to the ear and that nose is inferomedial to the eye. It was learning a new language.

The root cause of shame is Iow self-esteem.

The root cause of shame is Iow self-esteem. The feeling is triggered by any experience which makes us believe that we, as people, are not measuring up to a good enough standard •in the eyes of the world outside us. People can feel shameful about their basic genetic inheritance such as their nose, feet, skin colour, height or even gender. We can only feel shame as a result of someone else's judgment. There are sets of grades against which we keep measuring ourselves. These are given to us, mostly in early childhood and often subtly by others. I feel shame is a social glue that helps societies gel together. By reinforcing certain shared values, certain people Who don't measure up to these values are quietly made to sit at the bottom of the social Pile. In our village, a high value was put on adventure and arrogance, making people Who prefer a calm, safe, uneventful life to feel ashamed of their cowardly existence. This feeling made them less likely to challenge their arrogant masters, however aggressively and unjustly these leaders wielded their personal power. Shame is, therefore, both an uncomfortable emotion and a very frightening one, because it is so bound up With social isolation. Not only are we inclined to hide when we feel it, others reject us and ignore us when they recognise that we are someone Who don't match u to the re uired standard. In Indian villa es this as ct Shame is, therefore, both an uncomfortable emotion and a very frightening one, because it is so bound up With social isolation. Not only are we inclined to hide when we feel it, others reject us and ignore us when they recognise that we are someone Who don't match up to the required standard. In Indian villages, this aspect of shame is consciously cultivated, by the people in power, as a way of ensuring obedience. Many labourers, including women in their tattered clothes and With crying infants clinging to their sagging bosoms, would squat outside our big house for hours waiting for my father to come out 2 A Doctor's Story of Life and Death and pay their wages. I used to feel very disturbed by their presence and many times dared to plead their case for payment. Every time my father would chuckle and drown himself in deep slumber. This apathy towards the poor and helpless used to fill me With an intense  feeling of anger and helplessness. Apathy is an emotion that grows very slowly. It can be insidiously working away for years in our subconscious before we, or anyone else, even notice its presence. During its build-up its bad traits have much more chance of becoming deeply ingrained into our general personality than some of the more quick-firing emotions. My father Who felt that he could not be bothered at the moment became eventually an uncaring person. I used to care for the poor labourers waiting outside. The threat to their well-being posed by my father's indifference left me frustrated and irritated. As a Child I was strong-willed and positive in my tastes, but never made any big fuss in expressing them. I seldom threw a temper tantrum. Yet I always managed to communicate my negative reactions quite plainly. I used to sincerely believe in education imparted by Kosuri Ranga Rao in the form of archetypes and cliches like honesty, obedience, discipline and duty towards society and country. One day, a servant Child stole one mango from a room in the house where not less than a ton of them were stored. I caught him red-handed and reported the matter to my father With the pride of having performed a righteous and responsible act. My father disappointed me by brushing aside the whole incident as insignificant and preaching that small actions of small people should be overlooked. That all people were equal and any theft, small or big, was immoral was the general refrain. A feeling germinated in me that I must draw my own line between the realistically right and the practically wrong. I was growing in curiosity too. Every month Lalitha would be isolated in her room during her menstrual period. I never liked it. When I questioned my mother about the rationale, I was told that if she touched milk during those days it would turn into curd and, therefore, she had to be away from the kitchen. I remember dipping her finger forcefully in milk before drinking it and touching her to see if anything wrong could emanate from someone as nice and lovely as Lalitha. The innocent and passive ideation of life where Gods and Demons participate in your daily chores and eventually are responsible for What good and bad you receive has never appealed to me. There was an ancient temple of Lakshmipathy Swamy (Lord Vishnu, the sustainer God in Hindu mythology married to the Goddess of wealth Lakshmi) in front of our house. In fact our village is known across miles for the temple. I used to regularly visit the temple and felt comfortable inside. The chanting of prayers and the aroma of incense sticks created a pleasantly mystic environment. Whenever some marria@e was performed and the bride and the bridegroom were brought to the temple in a procession led by a group of village musicians playing Nadaswaram and some improvised percussion instrument, almost all children assemble there. Many such times Sarojini and I exchanged sly glances and experienced the thrill of stealing something precious away from the crowd. One Swamiji used to live on the outskirts of our village. This place was known as Krishnashram. He gave discourses to the villagers on religious matters and offered counselling when they came confused or troubled. Swamiji was good in Sanskrit and

One Swamiji used to live on the outskirts of our village. This place was known as Krishnashram. He gave discourses to the villagers on religious matters and offered counselling when they came confused or troubled. Swamiji was good in Sanskrit and Hindi. I started going there to learn Hindi from him. The thing that amazed me the most in Swamiji was his belief in himself. He was so sure about his powers that he would confidently touch the sick to ward away illness. He was said to have a divine vision and he could detect thieves and even locate hidden treasures. I personally never witnessed any such miracles nor believed in these claims beyond a point of general awe and surprise. One day while I was taking lessons in Hindi in Krishnashram, a big snake whizzed past me. I was gripped With fear. Our family took it as a most frightening incident and it took me more than a week to cajole my mother into allowing me to go to the Ashram again. After finishing seven years of education under the watchful eye of Kosuri Ranga Rao, the question arose if I had to be sent away for further education. There was no such dilemmafaced in case of my second brother Venkateswara Rao whom my father overheard saying to his friends that Why was he (my father) not overheard saying to his friends that Why was he (my father) not 4 A Doctor's Story of Life and Death buying a cow instead of wasting 50 rupees on sending him (Venkateswara Rao) to school. There were second thoughts on sending me away because of the possessiveness my mother and Lalitha developed about me. I, though totally drowned in the warmth of their love and care, wanted to go away and Study further. Does gender differentiation really exist in the form and substance of intangible feelings? One wants to hold and keep and the Other wants to go away. The nearest school was at Challapalli, eight miles south-west of Pedamuttevi towards River Krishna. I had to walk the entire distance. My father came about a mile to see me off. My third brother Bhasker Rao, himself a student of the same school at thebrother Bhasker Rao, himself a student of the same school at the SSLC level, accompanied me to Challapalli. My mother and I wept for quite sometime. Lalitha gave me a good quantity of Pakodi for eating on the way. I was put up in a hostel. As if to prove myself different from others, I began to organise my life into a routine rather early. The early years of protected care and tender love grew into focused efforts and compassion. Notable among Other students in the class was Visalakshi, Sister of the Chieftain of Challapalli, Srimanthu Raja Yarlagadda Siva Ram Prasad. She used to draw lot of attention from teachers and Other students. The whole set-up here was so different from that at Pedamuttevi. I knew quite early that I no more occupied the centre of attention and care. If anything What Visalakshi returned to me was a glance full of vanity and an invitation to compete. In school I was obedient, studious and reliable but was reluctant to participate in class discussions. I used to refuse directives for recitations and elocutions from teachers and elders and was even called as timid, lacking confidence and self-centred. I utilised every possible opportunity to go home. A new sense of enlightenment started growing in me. Whenever I came to Pedamuttevi, I found myself a visiting observer, a detached analyst. I started dislikin thin saboutm villa e, it's o le, it's wa sof

I started disliking things about my village, it's people, it's ways of organising and destabilising things. The endless talking among people started bothering me. Years of idle lifestyle whetted the appetite of my village folks, mostly relatives, to advise others pathologically. I saw so much of it that I had come to consider the A Doctor's Story of Life and Death whole process as turning private woe into public comedy. I am of the belief that advice is seldom welcome, and those Who need it most like it the least. Meanwhile, Bhasker Rao completed his SSLC and returned to Pedamuttevi to be the son of the soil. My best efforts to be the first in the class would get negated by the stature of Vlsalakshi's brother which fetch her almost always a couple of additional marks. It could also be the illusion of my egoist self which always believed itself to be the best. But then that was how I felt at that point ofIt could also be the illusion of my egoist self which always believed itself to be the best. But then that was how I felt at that point of time. There are profound moments, rare situations and times of extreme personal attachment in daily life when most people reflect automatically, immediately and intuitively. When we confront another's intense self-disclosures we are left speechless. We acknowledge that we have indeed registered the message. The visceral reaction of teachers always showed that they were on Visalakshi's Side. They would reflexively say good things to me to confirm that my discomfort towards their happiness in helping Visalakshi had been taken in and taken seriously. My performance level was so unknowingly becoming dependent on Visalakshi that my relationship With her was almost jeopardised. Jealousy is usually accompanied by anxiety, and often leads to anger, which is usually turned outwards rather than inwards. If the feelings are kept secret, shame usually grows and flourishes. It is frequently confused With envy, where you need something which you don't have. But although the two emotions have distinctly different triggers, they do ride in tandem because some of their root causes are common. Our urgent psychological hungers often cause us to swallow without tasting. The reveal-some of their root causes are common. Our urgent psychological hungers often cause us to swallow without tasting. The reveal- conceal ordeal is among the costliest conflicts of human relations. Most of the time, the solution simply lies in learning how and when to move towards the reveal Side. I found an inspiring guide in my Telugu teacher Suranna. He would read my unexpressed feelings and teach me to give words to them. I learned poetry from Suranna and wrote many verses, mostly addressed to Sarojini but never shared With her or With anybody else for that matter. I was the poet and I was the listener too. The writer and the reader both rolled into one. Later,

communistic ideas started substituting love and longing in my writings. I wrote a poem for the school magazine depicting a car throwing exhaust on a beggar's face, in contempt. One night in the hostel, while we were taking dinner, electricity failed. Amid confusion and chaos, everybody shouting at everybody else in pitched darkness, our cook-cum-server Lakshmaiah put his foot on my plantain leaf. This filled me With rage and I threw the leaf With the remains of food on Lakshmaiah's back. The whole place got frozen and was filled With tension. Immediately hostel warden Kasi Ramaiah appeared on the scene wielding his cane. He slapped me on my face. Blood gushed to my ears under the impact. For a moment, Lakshmaiah, Kasi Ramaiah and I were turned to a Bermuda Triangle ready to gobble up anything. Minutes got stretched into an eternity. Finally Kasi Ramaiah broke the silence and took me to his house putting his hand on my shoulder. His wife served me food and brought me back to ease. On return, I met Lakshmaiah and apologised. He himself had not eaten dinner and was waiting for me With the food. Anger is always taught to be dangerous, something that would just get you into trouble. We are told that if we give in to anger we'll go crazv I don't subscribe to these general attitudes aboutAnger is always taught to be dangerous, something that would just get you into trouble. We are told that if we give in to anger we'll go crazv I don't subscribe to these general attitudes about the feeling of anger. Though it is bad to burst into irritability or rage at the wrong time, in the wrong place and at wrong people or objects, suppressing tension and rendering ourselves speechless, motionless, depressed and sick is much worse. I hate crying victim's tears that always invite more abuse. I believe anger under control gives us more confidence to stand up for our own and other's rights. Chandra Rajeshwar Rao was a popular young communist leader in Challapalli. He would go around With tremendous energy and charisma. I was almost fascinated by his talks and the way he met and intermingled With people, giving big words to their small problems. I started knowing more of politics of poverty and property. Those Who had property exploited those Who did not have. It was called communism and considered anti-establishment. Rajeshwar Rao's friends would give younger students posters written With Long Live Revolution. These posters would be pastedin public Places at 3 in the morning to avoid police. I was so excited With the idea of doing something against the establishment that getting up so early filled me With a great sense of duty and satisfaction. Though Rajeshwar Rao talked about Marx and Lenin and never mentioned Gandhi and Nehru, I used to read about them With reverence. To me both Gandhi and Marx were equally appealing. The dignity of labour, equal right to existence, simplicity, sacrificial quality to help others and social justice were sacred to me. I read Kranti, a Hindi translation of some Russian publication, With interest and found it very Close to my own mind- set. The political environment was getting hotter. Gandhiji gave the Quit India call. It spread like a wildfire among students. I got myself so involved in all this that I fasted when Gandhiji fasted. I found fasting difficult but used to feel a vague sense of purification at the end of the fast. A strong feeling of nationalism gradually got seated in the depth of my mind and at times I felt almost compelled to quit studies and go to jail. Around the same time, my father made a bad land deal. He bought a big stretch of land at a good price, overlooking its Iow elevation. During rains, the entire land got flooded and crops wereAround the same time, my father made a bad land deal. He bought a big stretch of land at a good price, overlooking its Iow elevation. During rains, the entire land got flooded and crops were washed away. I visited my village during harvest time and found not even two bags full of paddy from the entire crop. The financial loss coupled With injury to his pride for making a wrong decision was too much to bear for my father. Behind his arrogant and authoritarian tough outer Shell I found him a simple and contended person. His personal possessions were limited to two pairs of cotton dress. While carrying two bags of paddy back home in our bullock cart, I heard a relative inquiring how many more ferries we planned to bring home for the bonanza. Rajeshwar Rao's talk of equal distribution of property and Gandhiji's on dignity of the fellow- being looked so misplaced against this uncoloured meanness and unsheathed jealousy. Eighty per cent of the population in Pedamuttevi belonged to the Kamma caste. Almost everybody was related to everybody else. This means, a few generations back they were from one family. Bemg the youngest Child I used to sleep in my parents' room andlisten to them talking about all that was not good among the villagers. If we were all linked to a common heritage and lineage of some superior blood What was then the rationale behind this almost sadistic response? We talk so much about social equity, justice, religious tolerance—all big words. Why nobody talks about our emotional barrenness and toxic jealousy that can kill any compassion and kindness in any relationship? I read a good poem that was perhaps written for the likes of my people: There are Six things, which the God hates, Seven which are an abomination to him: Haughty eyes, a Iying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked Plans. Feet that make haste to run to evil, A false witness Who breathes out lies, And a man Who sows discord among brothers. When I was giving my eighth standard examination, I acted as conduit, transferring a chit carrying answers from one student to another, in the examination hall. I was caught by the invigilator in this act of Plain copying amounting to cheating. As I had no intention and even the necessity to derive any advantage out ofin this act of Plain copying amounting to cheating. As I had no intention and even the necessity to derive any advantage out of the act, I felt miserable having been into it. The Other two students were debarred from the examination but I was left With a stern warning in view of my brilliant academic record and evidence of innocence. However, this had left a scar on my psyche. Your surroundings, the people Who live with, can really make you sick. You have a good chance of ending up as a loser if you live in the company of failures. My friends in the examination halls were opportunistic users. Then there were control freaks, meddlers, narcissists, instigators, emotional refrigerators, liars. These people had to be stopped in their tracks. How? Suddenly, lessons in life started looking tougher than the school syllabus. By the time, I finished my high school at Challapalli, I was emotionally toughened. Out of all subjects, I excelled particularly in mathematics. This made my father proud, for a Change. Circumstance had attenuated his arrogance to a great extent. I was welcomed backas a hero. The decision to send me on higher studies was spontaneous and unanimous. The only hitch was between me and Sarojini. She was of marriageable age by the standards of those times and if I went for further education, either I had to marry and leave her alone, or she would be married to someone else and I would be left alone. I landed at Hindu College, Masulipatnam, which was considered the best. The port city of Masulipatnam, now called Machillipatnam, but always known as Bandar locally, was across the canal, bringing Krishna water to the fields. There were many big buildings in Masulipatnam built by Britishers as they arrived in this land from Madras by the sea route. The influence of British was evident. At the college, when they questioned me about how much I scored in English I reported them a grand 22% which was the highest at Challapalli that year. A frog leaped out of the well! The Quit India movement was at its peak. My feelings of nationalism, stifled to an extent for family considerations, were roused. This, compounded by the hurt caused by Sarojini marrying someone else, made me think once again of leaving college and joining Satyagraha. However, the still disarrayed financial fortunes of my father and brothers at home and my own basic equation With education held me back. I, however, attended politicalsomeone else, made me think once again of leaving college and joining Satyagraha. However, the still disarrayed financial fortunes of my father and brothers at home and my own basic equation With education held me back. I, however, attended political meetings and rallies and took active interest in happenings there. One day agitators decided on setting the Masulipatnam Railway Station on fire. A big crowd of students gathered at the station. There were policemen, on horses, fiercely wielding batons. The entry to the station was blocked. Frustrated and unable to give vent to their anger, the students started stoning the policemen. I also lifted a stone and was about to hit a policeman when I saw blood oozing out of a wound on his forehead. What am I doing? What for? Whom are we hurting? A silent communication took place between that man riding a horse on someone's orders and a boy planning to hurl stones in a frenzy. The enlightenment of each other's helplessness about What was happening froze me. I dropped the stone and walked out of the crowd. I heard about Sarojini's marriage, but had no guts to go and see her tying the nuptial knot to someone else. As someone haswritten, 'There is nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dream." If What they say about eternal life cycles and soul taking different body forms were true, we had already met in the present forms and a union in the sense of husband and wife was to wait for some Other life. A part of me had died at that tender age itself. It was a deep emotional wound, that too a self-inflicted one. Can I afford to become soft and soppy about my emotional pain? Aren't most pleas of emotional distress just convenient excuses to evade responsibility? Why should I heal? Wouldn't a life of flat, colourless and stagnant happiness be worse—l may be hurting internally, but With my pain am I still alive? I used to sit on a see-saw of hope and despair, gloom and determination, vision and deception. I took sometime to realise that there are good reasons for healing emotional wounds promptly and efficiently. If emotional pain is not managed, whatever be the cause and however old the hurt, we have less resistance to Other hurts; we are likely to be more fearful of potentially good opportunities which could be emotionally strengthening; we can experience emotional confusion, caused by inappropriate feelings leaking into a current situation; we are in danger of Iosing control if a feeling from an unhealed wound is echoed and inappropriately amplified; we endanger our ability to feel and express positive emotions such as excitement and compassion. Though saddened and weary, I pulled myself together and went into my studies more as a solace than anything else in scholastic terms.anything else in scholastic terms. I passed my Intermediate examination With good marks. Although an uncle of mine wanted me to become a police officer and another one a village administrator, my zeal to become an engineer propelled me to go to Madras and explore the possibilities of getting admitted into an engineering college. I stayed there for a month pursuing the matter but some sort of quota by caste was introduced and that denied me an admission. Judging prospects of getting admission into engineering as bleak, as a backup strategy I obtained an application for a medical seat but never filled it up. I returned to Masulipatnam tojoin BA course in the same college. I was hean-broken as I would have to become some one in the crowd. One day I discovered the previous year's application form for the A Doctor's Story of Life and Death medical seat, carefully filled it and posted. I forgot about the whole thing as deep inside I was not keen on becoming a doctor. To my utter surprise, I received a postcard from an acquaintance, Nageswar Rao, in Madras. The postcard said that I had been allotted a Medical Seat at Msakhapatnam. The next thing I did was to take my friend Padmanabhiah  With me and reach Nidumolu. From there we took a bus to Bezwada (now Vijayawada) to board a train to Vlsakhapatnam. Ihe postcard was factual: I was selected for admission in MBBS course in the Andhra Medical College, and all I had to do was to deposit Rs. 420 and confirm admission. It was big money and we could arrange the deposit by collecting small amounts from friends and acquaintances in Vlsakhapatnam. On way back, I went to Pedamuttevi and informed my family about my admission in the Medical College. The first reaction was one of dismay. There was a conference of all family members and relatives to discuss the acts of omission and commission of this belligerent youth. The fraternity finally endorsed What I had already done and I left the village the next day. As the great Chinese book I Ching says, "The superior man, when he stands alone, is unconcerned, and if he has to renounce the world, he is undaunted," I was indeed alone and in fact renounced my village.

Let us all be men of action

Karm 'endriyäni samyamya ya äste manasasmaran Indriy 'ärthän vimüdhätmä mithy ' äcärah sa ucyate.

A man Who restrains his body's powers andfunctions, but Who sits, turning over his mind The objects ofsense, deludes himself. His conduct is pointless.

 Bhagavadgita Chapter 3; Verse 6.

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Bill Of The Month

For Her Head Cold, Insurer Coughed Up $25,865

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December 23, 20195:00 AM ET

Heard on Morning Edition

Richard Harris

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When Alexa Kasdan's sore throat lingered for more than a week, she went to her doctor. The doctor sent her throat swab and blood draw to an out-of-network lab for sophisticated DNA tests, resulting in a $28,395.50 bill.

Shelby Knowles for Kaiser Health News

Alexa Kasdan had a cold and a sore throat.
The 40-year-old public policy consultant from Brooklyn, N.Y., didn't want her upcoming vacation trip ruined by strep throat. So after it had lingered for more than a week, she decided to get it checked out.
Kasdan visited her primary care physician, Roya Fathollahi, at Manhattan Specialty Care, just off Park Avenue South and not far from tony Gramercy Park.

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The visit was quick. Kasdan got her throat swabbed, gave a tube of blood and was sent out the door with a prescription for antibiotics.
She soon felt better, and the trip went off without a hitch.
Then the bill came.
Patient: Alexa Kasdan, 40, a public policy consultant in New York City, insured by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota through her partner's employer.
Total bill: $28,395.50 for an out-of-network throat swab. Her insurer cut a check for $25,865.24.
Service provider: Dr. Roya Fathollahi, Manhattan Specialty Care.
Medical service: lab tests to look at potential bacteria and viruses that could be related to Kasdan's cough and sore throat.
What gives: When Kasdan got back from the overseas trip, she says there were "several messages on my phone, and I have an email from the billing department at Dr. Fathollahi's office."
The news was that her insurance company was mailing her family a check — for more than $25,000 — to cover some out-of-network lab tests. The actual bill was $28,395.50, but the doctor's office said it would waive her portion of the bill: $2,530.26.
"I thought it was a mistake," she says. "I thought maybe they meant $250. I couldn't fathom in what universe I would go to a doctor for a strep throat culture and some antibiotics and I would end up with a $25,000 bill."

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The doctor's office kept assuring Kasdan by phone and by email that the tests and charges were perfectly normal. The office sent a courier to her house to pick up the check.
How could a throat swab possibly cost that much? Let us count three reasons.
First, the doctor sent Kasdan's throat swab for a sophisticated smorgasbord of DNA tests looking for viruses and bacteria that might explain Kasdan's cold symptoms.
Dr. Ranit Mishori, professor of family medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, says such scrutiny was unnecessary.
"In my 20 years of being a doctor, I've never ordered any of these tests, let alone seen any of my colleagues, students and other physicians order anything like that in the outpatient setting," she says. "I have no idea why they were ordered."
The tests might conceivably make sense for a patient in the intensive care unit or with a difficult case of pneumonia, Mishori says. The ones for influenza are potentially useful, since there are medicines that can help, but there's a cheap rapid test that could have been used instead.

"There are about 250 viruses that cause the symptoms for the common cold, and even if you did know that there was virus A versus virus B, it would make no difference because there's no treatment anyway," she says.
(Kasdan's lab results didn't reveal the particular virus that was to blame for the cold. The results were all negative.)
The second reason behind the high price is that the doctor sent the throat swab to an out-of-network lab for analysis. In-network labs settle on contract rates with insurers. But out-of-network labs can set their own prices for tests, and in this case the lab settled on list prices that are 20 times higher than average for other labs in the same ZIP code.
In this case, if the doctor had sent the throat swab off to LabCorp ― Kasdan's in-network provider ― it would have billed her insurance company about $653 for "all the ordered tests, or an equivalent," LabCorp told NPR.
The third reason for the high bill may be the connection between the lab and Kasdan's doctor. Kasdan's bill shows that the lab service was provided by Manhattan Gastroenterology, which has the same phone number and locations as her doctor's office.
Manhattan Gastroenterology is registered as a professional corporation with the state of New York, which means it is owned by doctors. It may be the parent company of Manhattan Specialty Care, but that is not clear in its filings with the state.
Fathollahi, the Manhattan Specialty Care physician, didn't answer our questions about the bill. Neither did Dr. Shawn Khodadadian, listed in state records as the CEO of Manhattan Gastroenterology.
The pathologist listed on the insurance company's explanation of benefits is Dr. Calvin L. Strand. He is listed in state records as the laboratory director at Manhattan Gastroenterology and Brookhaven Gastroenterology in East Patchogue, N.Y. We tried to reach him for comment at both places.
Even though Kasdan wasn't stuck with this bill, practices like this run up the cost of medical care. Insurance companies base premiums on their expenses, and the more those rise, the more participants have to pay.
"She may not be paying anything on this particular claim," says Richelle Marting, a lawyer who specializes in medical billing at the Forbes Law Group in Overland Park, Kan., who looked into this case for NPR. "But overall, if the group's claims and costs rise, all the employees and spouses paying into the health plan may eventually be paying for the cost of this."
Marting says this is a common problem for insurance companies. Most claims processing is completely automated, she says. "There's never a human set of eyes that look at the bill and decide whether or not it gets paid."
Kasdan did pay her usual $25 copay for the office visit and a $9.61 fee to LabCorp for a separate set of lab tests.

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Resolution: "I made it very clear [to the doctor's office] that I was unhappy about it," Kasdan says. In fact, she told them she would report the doctor to New York state's Office of Professional Medical Conduct. Next, she reached out to Bill of the Month, a joint project of NPR and Kaiser Health News.
After a reporter started asking questions about the bill, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota stopped payment on the check it issued and is now investigating.
Jim McManus, director of public relations for BCBS of Minnesota, says the company has a process to flag excessive charges. "Unfortunately, those necessary reviews did not happen in this case," he wrote in an email.
The takeaway: Surprise bills often arise when an in-network doctor or hospital involves another provider who isn't in the patient's insurance network, without the patient's consent. But it is often nearly impossible for a patient to detect when that is occurring.
Patients can try to protect themselves from surprise bills by asking for details at their doctor's appointments.
"I always ask where they're sending my labs or where they're sending my images [like X-rays], so I can make sure that's in network with my insurance company," attorney Marting says.
They can also probe why a test is being ordered: "It is OK to ask your doctor, 'Why are you ordering these tests, and how are they going to help you come up with a treatment plan for me?' " says Georgetown's Mishori. "I think it's important for patients to be empowered and ask these questions, rather than be faced with unnecessary testing, unnecessary treatment and also, in this case, outrageous billing."
If you're sitting on the exam table thinking, "I won't ask. How much could it be?" — the answer could be a lot.
New York state has a law to protect patients from surprise bills. The law requires doctors' offices to warn patients in advance that they are using an out-of-network provider and that patients may be responsible for excess charges. If a patient doesn't consent to the involvement of an out-of-network doctor, then the patient must be held financially harmless from the bill. But it doesn't prevent an out-of-network provider from sending a bill or collecting from an insurer.
Kasdan says she was not told that the throat swab was being sent out of network at the time of her appointment, though it's possible one of the many papers she signed included a broad caveat that some services might not be in network.
People who suspect that a bill is the result of a violation of law can report that to state authorities. In this case, New York state's Department of Financial Services investigates complaints.
You can contact NPR science correspondent Richard Harris at rharris@npr.org.
Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by Kaiser Health News and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!
  

Efforts to make health care prices more transparent have not managed to bring down bills because the different charges and prices given are so often inscrutable or unreliable, says Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, an associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School.
"The charges on there don't make any sense. All it does is, people get pissed off," Mehrotra said. "The charge has no link to reality, so it doesn't matter."

Newspapers are writing sponsored articles about introduction of cost-recovery mechanisms in public hospitals,Dr Kakarla Subba Rao

 I was surprised to know that Dr. Kakarla Subbarao is alive and well at the age of 94 Dr Kakarla Subba Rao was born on 25 January 1925 in a middle class agricultural family at Pedamuttevi, a small village in Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh
although I knew of him by his reputation personally I have never worked with him/
 I should say that I was influenced by the ongoing gossip that the only reason he became the director of NIMS only because of his caste and his proximity to the actor turned politician chief minister N T
Ramarao but after reading a few pages of his autobiography I have changed my opinion.
His thoughts are pretty much resonant with my own ideas regarding public health institutions and their role in India.

From

A Doctors Story Of Life & Death

By Kakarla Subbarao, Arun K Tiwari


"With Institute back on rails, I started looking into the larger problems of managed healthcare. The technological gains made by the nation need to percolate to the grassroots level of our society leading to enhancement of the basic quality of life. One of the major achievements of the Indian health services system over the last fifty years has been the development of an extensive institutional network in the public sector. This network, despite severe limitations in the delivery of preventive, promotive and rehabilitative healthcare, served as an institutional life support system for the poor in the country. However, the profound infusion of technology in healthcare undermined the approach to primary healthcare and enforced an entirely new paradigm of health services. The paradigm included changes in the conceptualization, planning and delivery, including new ways of health financing. At the same time, epidemiological priorities remained unchanged. This new paradigm not only created confusion but also raised fears among the common man that the days of State-supported healthcare are over. The Western Model for structural adjustment and health reforms, primarily promoted by the private sector, calls for cuts in public spending on health services, including tertiary level medical care. World Bank officials issue statements asking the Government to strengthen population control and shift curative care to the private sector. Newspapers are writing sponsored articles about introduction of cost-recovery mechanisms in public hospitals,care to the private sector. Newspapers are writing sponsored articles about introduction of cost-recovery mechanisms in public hospitals, defining essential clinical and public health packages etc. in the disguise of expert opinions. This kind of talk has already made considerable damage to the State run healthcare system in the country. The emergence of medical insurance is already loaded With unfavorable consequences, as it would shift the responsibility of medical and public healthcare to households or the household micro environment. This would be disastrous as it leads to the State eventually abdicating its responsibility for the provision of healthcare, and a majority of households at the subsistence level in India would be left without any life support system. NIMS held, right since its inception, responsibility to initiate effort to empower the State run healthcare infrastructure With technology and rejuvenate it to effectively support the common man during distress. For various reasons, most health indices remain at unsatisfactory levels. Though so many hospitals mushroomed, the state of preventive medicine and diagnostics is still awry. I knew well that NIMS was expected to not merely function but also to respond to multiple managed care pressures. There were conflicting pressures from the demands of specialized care and its affordability. We had to consolidate as well as upgrade our in-patient operations. When I was working in Baltimore, there were two area healthcare systems—the two hospital Johns Hopkins Health System. and the 500-physician member Kaiser Permanente Group. We also had three Other hospital systems, namely, five-hospital Helix Health System, the academic medical facility, University of Maryland Medicine, and the two-hospital Bon Secours Baltimore Health System. They all worked in tandem as far as the delivery of care to the patient was concerned. There were protocols. parity of tariffs and certain minimal framework of standards that every hospital would adhere to. Here in Hyderabad we had a dozen profit savvy private hospitals all out to capitalize on their investments from patients, two government monoliths settled in their inertia With out-of-order equipment, demoralized physicians and corrupt staffers turned into virtual leaches, and private practitioners running their own queer road shows. The demands for hospital care can be divided into two categories: community induced demands and the demands influenced by the hospital. The hospital has little or no influence on the amount and range of services provided towards the

India is a land of Gods, Avatars and Gurus. More than one billion people live in this vast land of diverse geographic regions and long history. Most of them are believers. But more than allegiants of an almighty supreme power, they fear God as unknown. Everything that is unexplainable is seen as an act of God, every problem that is insurmountable is passed on to God for solution, every wish that is unachievable is presented before God for fulfilment. Most of the buck is passed on to God. Success is enjoyed in His name, failures are attributed to His indifference. There is an almost fatal fascination for the status quo. An inherent inertia can be seen in every walk of life. A lack of drive to come out of the rut is the most common trait among Indians. God has been idolised in hundreds and thousands of forms and is seen as an ombudsman out to bail one out of one's life problems including those related to health. Everything, everyone, has been segregated into the two compartments of good and bad, black and White, zeros and heroes. Everything is either sacred or sinful. I am a physician by profession. More than five decades of working in hospitals has brought me very Close to pain, suffering, and death. Looking around in my domain of healthcare I see more of pain than care. Problems outnumber solutions. There are crises related not only to individual and community health but also in I am a physician by profession. More than five decades of working in hospitals has brought me very Close to pain, suffering, and death. Looking around in my domain of healthcare I see more of pain than care. Problems outnumber solutions. There are crises related not only to individual and community health but also in the deliverance of healthcare. Unlike in Western countries, where medicine is practised as a law monitored, insurance-driven service profession, in India it is a very complex proposition involving handling of human emotions. Disease and pain are seen here as a punishment from God. Patients look at treatment as an exercise in A Doctor's Story of Life and Death atonement and salvation and approach doctors as they would, a priest in a temple—carrying all they have With folded hands and leaving egos outside as shoes. During the course of treatment, they fluctuate between helplessness and idle serenity and turbulence of
restlessness and unsettling anxiety. Doctors often find themselves tangled in the web of these emotional loose ends and their own personal priorities for affluent life. This is a very peculiar situation that needs closer observation and careful analysis. Sometime back I felt a strong desire to undertake such a Study and write down my observations for further examination before they vanish into oblivion With my physical being. I felt that at the least my memories would provide an insight into the pain that a physician undergoes in his chosen profession of combating others' pain. I am no great achiever. There is nothing spectacular that has happened in my life and I certainly do not consider myself belonging to the category of people Who write about their lives or are written about. Nevertheless, when I decided to write my memories, I could not go much farther than the pain and problems of my patients. Lesser mortals always imitate legends. I took the clue from the great Mahatma Gandhi, Who chose to write about his experiments With truth in his autobiography. I have decided to share With my readers about perhaps the only thing that I know—my experiences With my patients—why we suffer With so many sicknesses and What is it like to die. For doipg this I needed

sicknesses and What is it like to die. For doipg this I needed someone Who can hear me With the mind of a scientist and write it in a form that a reader relishes. I had teamed up With Bharat Ratna APJ Abdul Kalam in some of his Societal Missions concerned With making healthcare technologically enriched, affordable and accessible. This interaction had brought me closer to Arun K. Tlwari, his disciple and an outstanding scientist in his own right. The team of Dr. Abdul Kalam and Arun K. Tlwari had already produced the widely acclaimed masterpiece, Wings ofFire. It was, therefore, very natural that Arun and I teamed up to write the book you are about to read. Why should änybody read my Story? With a monotonous regularity my life revolved around the problems of my patients.

All I saw was suffering and people fighting pain. My patients were my all-consuming interest all along. I was talking to them all my years. I was listening to them all my days. Each patient was a book. Each patient was a teacher. Each patient was a personality—an integrated being having mental, emotional, social and physical characteristics. Each one brought to me a unique set of thoughts, fears, hopes, reactions, behaviours, and dreams, wrapped up in the form of diseases. Though suffering from widely known diseases, the problems of no two patients can ever be the same. Just as the physical body has a seemingly unlimited variety, so does the sickness that makes the body suffer. The response of the body to the disease is What makes each patient unique. The latest research in genetics, molecular biology and neuroscience shows that many core physiological traits are inherited at birth, and that many of the differences between individual responses to disease are the result of differences in genes. Each one of us is created from the genes of our two parents. Each one of us is a product of generations of evolution, countless bits of information collected over millions of years, focused, narrowed, and refined until one is pushed out ofthe binh canal into the world. However, in spite of this inborn biological dimension, no one isreally stuck up. There is an amazing built-in flexibility in each one of us that allows us to adapt to life's hurdles and challenges. Growing up means not only learning the ways of the world, but also dealing With one self. There is a body and there is a mind and both disease and healing hover between them. Everyone has the ability to grow and change at every stage in life. People learn from experience, from parents and from friends. Individuals have the option to give in to temperamental weaknesses, or to overcome them. They can take advantage of temperamental gifts or hide them. People can indulge their desires to smoke, drink, or eat too much—or they can resist. They can live an active life or lock themselves in shackles of sedentary schedules and safe familiarity of habits. Sometimes they will do both during the course of their Jives. The environment too plays a part but not as much as is Popularly believed. The most important environmental factors are not reading, education, or social status, they are rather random and uncontrollable experiences such as precise concentration of a particular chemical in the brain, or something apparently minor like a childhood case of the measles. While we like to imagine ourselves to be the carefully crafted products of our upbringing and education, we are actually shaped by the same sort of chaotic events that make each laddu distributed at the Tirupati Balaji temple unique. Just as a laddu has little to say about its shape, we are born With limits on the Shape of our bodies, the color of our skins and type of hair. Try as we might to change our shape, most of us will fail. We will eat the way we've always eaten, and we'll have the same activity level we had as children, or even earlier in the womb There is an obese gene we all inherit that determines our body weight rather than the quantum of food we eat. Genes also control how quickly the body breaks down With age. A similar role is played by the genetics of gender—the biological differences between men and women. Every fetus is created without sex until a single gene switches on and begins a cascade of chemical reactions that turns half of us into males and half into females. The changes affect not only physical characteristics but also mental ones. Men are programmed to seek more partners and sexual The changes affect not only physical characteristics but also mental ones. Men are programmed to seek more partners and sexual novelty; women are serial monogamists seeking mates Who will remain long enough to raise offspring. Behavior like addiction to alcohol, tobacco and dangerous drugs too is determined largely by heredity. It doesn't matter What substance you abuse if you are programmed to get hooked. People are driven to violence by a force within them in the form of certain brain chemicals. Each Child shares personality traits With his or her parents, from talents to predisposition, to certain dreaded diseases. Every grown up man has experienced a shock of realization when he does something exactly like his father before him. Every mother has a similar experience when a Child behaves exactly like her. This is not bad; it's beautiful. This does not mean we are doomed to become our parents; it means we begin our journeys where our parents left off. The book has been conceived With no Other plan in mind than that of conversing With people Who want to know more about pain

and suffering related With the health of their loved ones as well as their own well-being. The text is organised into ten chapters and arranged in three parts—Cognition, Creation and Contemplation. The first part covers my childhood, medical education and initial years in the United States. The second part covers my comeback, retreat, growth and final return. The third part over-views the new emerging medical science based on molecular biology and genetics and records my views on going back to the basics of good living. I have written this book as much for myself as for everyone Who reads it. By writing about health and life, diseases and death I hope to recall the things I have seen and make them familiar to everyone else. If diseases may become just a bit more familiar to you, sickness will be less startling. To me, the view that sees physical disease in isolation from the soul is a blinkered one. Unless negative characteristics such as untruthfulness, malice, concealed aggression, a repressed urge to dominate others, unfocused intellectual energy, suppressed vitality and selfishness are diagnosed and treated, we will remain as condemned prisoners of medical contingency.

. Life is a constant surprise. Life's healthy mode is transition. Life manifests itself in only a never-ending process of dying and becoming. It is a strange fact of human experience that great suffering generates its own remedy. Let's evoke the Life's force by understanding the scriptures transcribed in our genes. If there are imperfections coded so are compensatory powers. The art and science of modern medicine can intervene to deal With the results of nature's imperfections, and to make use of nature's compensatory powers. The story I am going to narrate is that of the triumph of the human body, and of the human spirit. While pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Kakarla Subbarao Hyderabad June 2001 THIS STORY IS FROM JULY 22, 2004

:"HYDERABAD: The Punjagutta police have registered a cheating case relating to the Balakrishna shooting episode against Dr B Soma Raju of Care Hospital and Nims former director Dr Kakarla Subba Rao.","Police acted on a complaint filed by an advocate alleging that Dr Raju intentionally shielded actor N Balakrishna following the shooting incident instead of handing over the actor to the police after administering him first aid.",:"Balakrishna allegedly shot two persons”film producer Bellamkonda Suresh and astrologer Satyanarayana Choudary”on June 3. He later got himself admitted to Care Hospital citing bleeding injuries suffered in an attack by the two persons.""Complainant Gopalakrishna Kalanidhi said Dr Soma Raju, despite knowing fully well that Balakrishna''s case was a medicolegal one, failed to inform police and shielded the actor for 7 to 10 days.","As for Dr Kakarla Subba Rao, the case alleges that he provided ''protracted pseudo-treatment'' to the actor in the name of treatment for psychiatric and orthopaedic problems. Reacting to the case filed against him, Soma Raju said, "I have nothing to hide. In case of Balakrishna we did the same thing as what we would do for any other patient. I am confident that we have not violated any rules. We only tried to help the patient.,"Dr Subba Rao refused to make any comment about the FIR as he felt it is inappropriate to comment as he is no more associated with Nims."

Down the memory lane The two faces of Indian police encounter

This press clipping from Indian express wonderfully illustrates the two faces of police encounters in the narrative manufactured.
I think the only example where hundred and 50 people were involved in a burglary

Naxalite held
Hyderabad. Mallena Butchiah described as an extremist leader was arrested following an exchange of fire near Pathakota village in Srikakulam district on Sunday according to official sources.. A police party looking for dacoits responsible for the dacoity at Datapuram village on March 24 communist extremists and tribals were reported to have taken away ₹20,000 worth of gold ornaments and grain 


Police firing Nnrch V, Police opened fire on a group of persons at pathakota village 
svhcn Wt•ro pnvented trom apprehe•a. p.-rsons In v:t'.h the :ecrnt dnrolty easo Bachttpuram villar.e, accor;tng to an o•.hetni receivect beta today, »ollca arrested one ond revolver. a

Down the Memory Ln., Balkanization of India?

 Balkanization of India?

Down the memory lane: Mulkis (sons of soil) "the promises remained confined to paper" So I am the son of which soil?

Oh how many people are killed in the process of ascertaining the rights of the sons of the soil?
With the recent rhetoric by trump regarding immigrants in USA I am getting more and more disillusioned with the idea that the human race has got a rational brain.
So I am the son of which soil?
At the present time legally I am in naturalized US citizen.
Previously I was an Indian citizen holding an Indian passport.
Even now I hold a OCI card which makes me an overseas citizen of India
my parent's were born in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu
I was born in Avanigadda, Krishna district in the present Andhra Pradesh state.
When I was three or four years old I moved along with my family to Warangal in the present state of Telangana.
I moved to New Delhi for my studies during residency in general surgery in all India Institute of medical sciences.
I reviewed in the Islamic Republic of Iran for about an year .

Isn't this latest agitation against citizenship  amendment act ultimately boils down to the definition of who is the son of the soil?

The Kashmir agitation

The Assam agitation

The Telangana agitation

State of Andhra Pradesh, popularly designated as the 'Jai Telangana Movement'. Since the Gentlemen 's Agreement was destroyed by the majorities, the then— Congress-led State government adopted a diplomatic stance, offering assurances that non-TeIangana civil servants the region would be replaced by mulki,s dis- advantaged local people•, furthermore, revenue generated from the region would be returned to the region itself It is, however, ironic that the promises remained confined to paper. Dissatisfied by the developments, the people of the region took to violent techniques, With the agitation spreading. Simultaneously, the political elite of the Andhra region did not digest the corrective measures adopted by the central government. The subsequent years witnessed clashes between the sup- porters of the Jai Andhra and Jai Telangana movements. The leaders of the Jai Andhra movement demanded either doing away With the safeguards promised by the then—Congress-Ied State government to the people of Telangana, including the judgment of the Supreme court of India on the legality of mulki rules,6 or bifurcate Andhra Pradesh into Andhra and Telangana States. Yielding to this pressure, the government of India quashed almost all the protective measures promised to the people of Telangana, including the invalidation of the judgment of the Supreme court on mulki rules,' thus depriving them of their legitimate share in the fruits of development and denying them any opportunity to voice their grievances before the government in the political process. The so-called people's issues______

Globalisation and Governance in India: New Challenges to Society and ...

edited by Harihar Bhattacharyya, Lion König

The so-called people's issues The movement dynamics In recent years brings to the fore the concern of the common masses on matters affecting their daily lives. Whereas the movement of the 1960s divided people on linguistic grounds, the movement of the 1990s united them, as it were; now the cultural concerns seem to have been overtaken by the developmental ones. However, the concerns of Iow income groups have been sidelined in the process. The majority of the Telangana population, excluding Hyderabad, comprises the agricultural farmers whose livelihood revolves around the yearly produce from their lands, for which they are heavily dependent on the government for subsidies on fertiliser and in-igation facilities. Some of the reform policies led to a deterioration of the conditions of the poor farmers: withdrawal of subsi- dies, support prices, privatisation, and simultaneous increase in power tariffs, which create considerable difficulties to the farmers heretofore much dependent on government subsidy. Developmental policies have catered to the elite agri- business class, to the utter discontent of the millions of rural farmers. With the withdrawal of State subsidies on fertilisers, seeds, and Other inputs, the cost of cultivation went up drastically. To supplement for the losses incurred, the farm-ers took to growing commercial crops and a multi-crop system which was highly water intensive. Thus, the poor farmers became heavily dependent on bore wells and Other means of artificial water supply, which were extremely expensive and forced them to take Ioans, which increased their debts in the absence of the means to pay them off. The neo-liberal reforms led to open competition, With the


financial assistance to its supporters) created new intersections between popular movements and politics throughout India, including Telangana. Statehood movements are popularized today by regional parties fighting for the cause of local issues and increasing their competitive space in the State. This, however, does not mean that the national parties are indifferent or oppose the cause of new Statehood demands. The leadership of the Telangana movement was taken up by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), formed in 2001 under the leadership of K. Chandrasekhar Rao, whose primary agenda was the formation of a separate State of Telangana. The Congress party, however, showed an Interest in Telangana and created a favorable climate; in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party formed an alliance With T RS to obtain a stronghold in Andhra Pradesh, competing With the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The Congress agreed to fast-forward the cre- ation of Telangana and even included it m the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) election manifesto. However, the UPA I could not further the cause of Telangana due to opposition from one of its allies, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)]. Considering it to be a betrayal of the partnership, the TRS withdrew from the alliance With Congress. The T DP took this opportunity to forge an alli- ance With TRS against the Congress State government. In the 2009 elections, the party manifestos of the Congress, BJP, and T RS spoke of development as the main slogan and the need for the creation of Telangana. The Congress party's national leadership was undecided on this issue until the end of its tenure 111 May

Down the memory lane Jai Telangana Jai Jai Telangana

Down the Memory  lane
Jai Telangana Jai Jai Telangana

State of Andhra Pradesh, popularly designated as the 'Jai Telangana Movement'. Since the Gentlemen 's Agreement was destroyed by the majorities, the then— Congress-led State government adopted a diplomatic stance, offering assurances that non-TeIangana civil servants the region would be replaced by mulkis (sons of soil)
ss dis- advantaged local people•, furthermore, revenue generated from the region would be returned to the region itselC It is, however, ironic that the promises remained confined to paper. Dissatisfied by the developments, the people of the region took to violent techniques, With the agitation spreading. Simultaneously, the political elite of the Andhra region did not digest the corrective measures adopted by the central government. The subsequent years witnessed clashes between the sup- porters of the Jai Andhra and Jai Telangana movements. The leaders of the Jai Andhra movement demanded either doing away With the safeguards promised by the then—Congress-Ied State government to the people of Telangana, includ- ing the judgment of the Supreme Coun of India on the legality of mulki rules,6 or bifurcatmg Andhra Pradesh into Andhra and Telangana States. Yielding to this pressure, the government of India quashed almost all the protective measures promised to the people of Telangana, including the invalidation of the judgment of the Supreme Coun on mulki rules,' thus deprrv'lng them of their legitimate share in the fruits of development and denying them any opportunity to voice their grievances before the government in the political process. The so-called people's issues

BJP's Hardeep Singh Puri had absolutely no idea that this Prashant Kishore worked for his own partie' s (BJP's) success in the past?

 BJP's Hardeep Singh Puri had absolutely no idea that this Prashant Kishore worked for his own party' s (BJP's) success in the past?

New Delhi: Prashant Kishor on Saturday gave a subtle but sharp response to BJP's Hardeep Singh Puri after the union minister played down the poll strategist's relevance in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

"Who is Prashant Kishor? I don't know him. There is a chap who used to work in UN, then he joined one party, then another party and then another party," Puri told reporters on Friday when asked about Kishor being roped in by AAP in Delhi elections.

To this, Kishor called himself an ordinary man and asked why a senior leader like Puri would know him.

"He is a tall leader of the country and a union minister. Why will he know an ordinary man like me? Over 50 lakh people like me from UP and Bihar live and struggle to make a space for themselves in Delhi. How will such a senior leader like Puri Ji know so many people?" Prashant told ANI.

Down the memory lane: All India Majlis Ittehad ul Musallameen demanded that Urdu be made a second official language and Osmania University be converted into an Urdu medium central University

The Najlis demanded that Urdu be made a second official language and Osmania University be converted into an Urdu medium central University

State of Telangana ruled out

New Delhi March 31

home minister John today virtually ruled out the formation of a separate Telangana

He told the Lok Sabha the center was interested in the “integrity of Andhra “ and in improving the relations between its people.

This was the nearest the home minister came to in commenting on the movement for a separate Telangana. He might not have said even this much but for an interruption from the Congress member from Andhra Pradesh Mr. Thirumala rao , who pointed to the demand for separation.

Mr. Chow unspoken reply to the debate on the home ministry demands for grants later voted by the house. The opposition pressed for a division, only to see Congress muster an impressive 172 against opposition 60, with the loan member abstaining. As soon as the division Bell was wrong minister still recovering from the shock of last week’s collapse of the constitutional amendment bill rushed into the house to pad the treasury benches.

Even so, some of them were not present. The Prime Minister was indisposed and the Deputy Prime Minister away in the United States, the news of Mr. Fakuruddin Ali Ahmad’s illness had been earlier broke into the house, necessitating the postponement of the discussion on the demands of the ministry of industrial development. The house instead to The demands of the ministry of irrigation and power

Matters connected with the Telangana region, “till we come on par with the Andhra region”

He told Pressman that the chief minister should  give a “solemn undertaking that the next chief minister will be from Telangana”

the chief minister should immediately appoint a deputy chief minister from the Telangana region. And he should be entrusted with the general administration, police Law & Order, courts, services and political.

The chief secretary should be replaced by a senior official of the Telangana region, or an officer of the central government.

Parity must be maintained in all departments between Andhra and Telangana officers, Mr. Muthyal Rao said.

Mr. Muthyal Rao also wanted to Telangana Vice Chancellor for those minor University, and told the students to “withdraw their education and resume their studies”

Teacher’ s threat

Meanwhile the state teachers union has threatened the government with direct education, from April 13, if the safeguards start down by the Supreme Court were not restored. They said that the only way these guarantees could be restored was by giving statehood to the Telangana it should be done.

The secretariat branch of the Telangana in US union today demonstrated before the chief secretary’s room for about 15 minutes in protest against the rest of Mr. K.R.Ames president of the union early this morning.

The state executive of the union which met last night, decided to support the demand for statehood for Telangana by April 9 the date fixed by Telangana Praja Samiti and the action committee of the Osmania University students.

The executive decided to give the state government 10 days time to think of a way of implementing the decisions of the authority of card of January 19

Arson toll

Ramesh Chand, president of the Hyderabad Gumastha Sangha, died of bird injuries sustained three days ago. Pulley said he might have injured during the Jamai Osmania railway station arson .

Communists, Marxists, Jana Sangh and communist trade union leaders issued a joint statement on Sunday, calling the demand for a separate Telangana as a counsel of despair which would only do harm to the interests of the people of the region.

Police used lathis to chase away group of educators, on Sunday night when they tried to disturb a meeting addressed by a communist trade union leader.

In another incident a scooter belonging to the owner of a medical shop parked inside his compound was found burned down this morning.

Telangana agitators were alleged to have set fire to the Terry Miller post office last night, according to the official information available here today.

Only the doors were damaged in the fire, it was stated. The fire was extinguished before it could spread

Two persons were arrested today in connection with the Fridays arson at Jamai Osmania suburban railway station.

Meanwhile Mr. Madhu Limaye SSP leader, suggested that people agitating for the Eleanor estate should submit a “monster quotation” with two or 3 million signatures to the parliament.

He said: “I am not empowered to give any direction (to party men). On whether there should be separation of Telangana from Andhra.”

Mr. Madhu Limaye stressed that the present team a minister should go. “A fresh solution to the problem was not humanly possible without such a change,” he said.

The state executive of the Andhra Pradesh paragraph socialist party, which concluded its three day session today, has demanded the dismissal of the state government headed by Mr. cameraman on the ready, the imposition of Pres.’s rule on the state and dissolution of the assembly, in view of the present agitation.

Muslim demands

the All India Majlis Ittehad ul Musallameen today presented a charter to the chief minister demanding proportional representation in the ministry, in services and innkeepers, in accordance with the population.

The Majlis demanded that Urdu be mailed a second official language and Osmania University be converted into an old blue medium central University

The deputationists demanded that the deputy chief minister should always be a Muslim