Coronavirus Part 25, Risky Living, Health Care Reforms, Uncles Departure and Farmers Protests.

               It has been nearly two months since my last post came out. Every week, the ‘crazy me’ would like to share some crazy thoughts but it didn’t happen that way. I might sound crazy in writing this blog but I am happy to be called as such as long as there is no harm in it. I missed on writing down my review on the year gone by and it has already been a month into the New Year. So, as mentioned, I just couldn’t keep awake all night for 1 or 2 days to update this space. Nonetheless, if I still recall the past year, it is the most suppressive and oppressive year for the humanity with highest population in the recent times from a virus. The virus brought death bells ringing upon humanity and also took life out of remaining living population. In simple terms, the virus killed the spirit of humanity across the globe. The dead are gone and the living is more dead than alive. Life in its all forms has been knocked over .The free-flowing spirit of the humanity with utmost freedom has been enslaved and chained by the virus under its iron paws. When will the world be free from this mighty and minuscule virus? The miniscule virus has acquired gigantic form and kept the world under its tight grip. The medicine to it will not only prevent death but also bring back life to the living. I don’t know when this iron grip from the virus will be undone.

               This is from an external point of view but I had a great year last year. Indians resurrected a failing man like me and made me successful. I attended ‘Vijay Sankalp Sibir’, a convergence of more than 10,000 people, just before the turn of 2020 which means ‘we wish to be victorious and successful’ and these wishes laid down the year 2020 which brought success to me. I am made by the people of India who wished for my success and made me as such. My heart, body and soul reverberate in the greatness of its people. Extrapolating, the time for India has come to be successful and great. Indians as individuals has to be successful and the country as a whole should reflect the same. The time has come for the greatest minds, the finest people of the country to be successful in their lives accomplishing significant outcomes which move the world in the path of progress. We need to shed our latency and work as proud boys taking pride in our culture, heritage and what we had. The country is our pride, its strength is our pride, its people are our pride, its diversity is our pride, its unity is our pride and this pride can be our single biggest motivation factor towards greater accomplishments. With pride, hard work and unwavering commitment, we can bring glory to our own people who give their best wishes to us. Serving our source of strength - which is our own people, is the ultimate service and let us all toil in that endeavour.

               Reflecting on how things are happening since last year and half or more than that, I am hurting multitudes through my actions when I step out and do something. From the culture and my time in U.S., whenever I step out, I would be encouraged to ‘Go Ahead’ and achieve something. I felt very good on hearing those words of assurance. But this continuous mode of operation is basically not correct without confinement for some time. Gone are the days which are asking for ‘Go ahead’ and came those that hurl ‘Gone case’. I know deep down when I step out, I am playing with danger and taking some risk. It’s natural for people to retort in the way they had to upon getting hurt and its natural to say that I am gone. The phenomenon that is going on is mostly undemocratic, risky and without consensus. I am working to somehow gain acceptance, reach consensus and become a bit safe. It should involve everyone, benefit everyone and no one should get hurt emotionally. A day should come when my work gain farther acceptance and the struggle eases the pain of the people. But right now, I am plying with danger, doing some basic mistakes and taking lot of risks in my daily routine. A staggered approach by taking periodic breaks can be the correct thing to do and reduce the risk. I may have to change my approach if I want to go far rather than take risks in short term. I spoke about changing myself in the last post. One may have to reinvent after a decade to sustain for another one. I am seriously contemplating on the same to put into practise and reinvent myself. You can live however you like as a bachelor but after a period it has to give way for a safer living.

               Continuing with this, since the last one year I am working in the health care domain of a U.S. client. But this is the very year which has enormous strain on the health care as the pandemic ravaged the U.S. There are 4.5 lakh people who lost their lives and 2.6 crore people who are affected by the virus. Nearly 8% of the population contracted the virus and got treated for the same. These draconian numbers just tell the tip of the iceberg. What about the fears of the remaining 92% of the population. This is a terrible state to be in.

               I feel extremely pained to see 4.5 lakh in U.S, 1 lakh in U.K , of our own men and women have lost their lives due to the virus. Our own people in such a large number are gone in this pandemic. Nowhere else in the world is the relative percentage of population so high among those who are dead. We need to save our people, need to be there for one another and the best time to act is now to restore the good old days. The best way to serve is through the health care. There has to be efforts from all the affiliated parties to provide affordable health care, prevent deaths, save lives and vaccinate the entire country as early as possible. I know health care is beyond the burden of common man in U.S. 

               Due to this reason, the earlier democratic government introduced the affordable health care act which is the most known health care policy of those times. The new democratic government should continue the good work on Affordable Care Act (ACA) in particular and health care in general and work towards enhancing these policies to reduce costs, treat patients and save lives. The pandemic has exposed the failure of the health care system in U.S. to save lives despite having the state-of-the-art technology and research. How can lakhs of elderly people who should be covered with insurance, provide best health care die due to lack of these. How can millions of workers lose insurance after losing job in the pandemic.  How can stories emerge where thousands die due to unviability of quality health care. How come the worlds best medical research does not have a system in place to save its own population.

               Nearly 20% of U.S. counties are disproportionately Black, and these counties have accounted for more than half of Covid-19 cases and almost 60% of Covid-19 deaths nationally. What does this say, that the poor are mostly affected and died due to lack of quality health care. This happens when the principle of operation of health care is wrong. You cannot run the health care bodies like some corporate entities working for profits. You cannot play with the health and lives of people for the sake of money. You cannot create a business empire out of the affordability of paying for the lives of people. The poor and vulnerable should get the best health care at no cost. Let the government bear all the costs and encourage these poor citizens to get the treatment from these corporate providers.

               There are many doctors in India who treat patients for free or at a nominal cost and there are no middle men to prey upon the patients. All the monetary transactions happen directly between the doctor and patient for most of the medical treatments in the country. Even if the intermediaries operate, they should give importance to health and profit should come last. I am working in the health care domain towards improving the health of people and any risk I take in this period should be directly affected towards improving the system. I treat this as an excellent platform to work and something I can touch upon. I made a similar post in 2017, during my time in U.S. on the threats to repeal ACA but the government did not seem to have paid much heed to it. Otherwise, the situation would not have been this bad. On the other hand, India came up with an excellent scheme in the mean time. The new democratic government should be at least steadfast in implementing and improving its own health care act.

               Talking about losing own people, let me share you the story of losing my Dads younger brother few days back. The shock came in the initial days of the year. After losing my father at a young age, he became one of the pillars of support. Uncle was one of the few who is well educated and worked in a reputed profession in the family. Since young age, we looked up to him and followed him of his ways. He connected me to the city of Hyderabad.  I came to Hyderabad after the job posting but not for the first time. I initially came as a kid few times and stayed for two years during my intermediate. A visit for a talent test had me joined in intermediate college for two years by this uncle. He took me to the college, paid the deposit and made me shift from my home town in view of good education in the setting. I failed miserably in those two years as I didn’t study much, sat idle and resorted to unfair means in the exams. Those two years are a blot on my life. My first outing in the city is a failure. I went back to my home town for higher studies where I did reasonably well. I returned to the city after job posting and this time I was destined to be successful after the initial failure.

               They call failures as stepping stones for success and this is true in my case. I worked keeping him in my mind of his ways. As a living resident, the impact he has on me is huge and the impact I had on this city is also huge. It is a rare phenomenon that I could affect a crore of the best people of the state by living like one among them over a decade. The bond is reinforced over time and whatever work we did in our enthusiasm should be for the betterment of the city. We all know from beginning that Andhra Pradesh/Telengana is a breeding ground for best kids with sharp minds towards technological education. There is a need for environment to continue their journey as an adult. We worked towards creating it in the city so a plethora of high-end jobs are available for the graduates. The city has seen many fold development in the last decade and ready to provide good environment for everyone in the years to come. In this way, uncle played an important role in my journey so far. It is extremely unfortunate and shocking that his demise is sudden and untimely.

               Coming to the last topic of this post, let me delve on the farmer protests. These protests are a way to contribute to the nation by the farmers in addition to providing us with food. It is not much about the farm laws but more about the timing of their protests. They just want to let us all kow that they are there for the nation in its hour of need. These protests are a vehicle to say their love for the country. The farm bills became a mere reason for it. The farmers are extremely praiseworthy in their efforts and the role of Punjab is also laudable. Who can sit on protests bearing chilling weather of the capital in the winter season. These gullible souls are ready to go to any extent in their resolve. In a country where 65% of its people still depend on agriculture, the farm laws should have been passed by reaching the consensus of all the stakeholders. There is severe opposition right at the time of passing and it continued as such. The farm laws should be given top most importance and the reforms should be democratically approved before passing as a legislature. These protests should be a good time to solve all the pending issues of farmers. Just for instance, more than 10000 farmers died by suicide in 2019. Why don’t the government address the root cause of it and make farming profitable. This systemic neglect of farmers has been there since years and this government did not do much for them either. Farmers are among the poorest of the people and their problems should be tackled in the first year of forming the government, not in the sixth year, leisurely, in haste, when there is a bit of opposition. These protesting farmers should be respected in highest order and their demands should be met as early as possible.