Dr. Bharat Desai's Blog

25-Dec-2017 onwards, I had talked with my friend Anilbhai Desai on phone two-three times. Every time, he mentioned the worthiness of seeing Kankaria Carnival and invited us. But I was resistant to go. On 30-Dec-2017, while talking with Jayshreeben Desai, she also invited and insisted to visit Ahmedabad. So, my wife Bhavana and I accepted the invitation. In fact, when we need to face young generation people, we avoid out of fear of difference and generation gap. Even visiting close relatives and friends is not that pleasing nowadays, and so we avoid as far as possible. I had sufficiently interacted with Anilbhai's son – Darshan and his wife Shalu, so I could be little courageous to decide for the visit.

If you want to be alone to be with nature, it is an ideal spot. But if you enjoy crowds with your group this is an equally important place to visit.

42 km from Bilimora on Vansda Road, we reached Janki Van in less than an hour. Dr Nayana Patel, Dr Bhavana Desai (my wife) and I visited the place impromptu on a weekday.

The name Janki is related to Sita Mata of Ramayana and it is believed that at a certain point in the history, Sita Mata did stay here. The garden, a great picnic spot (16 hectors big), is situated 5 km away from Vansda, 6 km from Unai and 42 km from Bilimora. It is developed by the Gujarat Forestry Department under social forestry action and was inaugurated on 02-Aug-2015 while celebrating the Forest Day. Please, keep in mind it remains closed on Monday and visiting hours are 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Did you know, diabetes is a leading cause of blindness in adults?

Inviting residents in and around Bilimora town, to an awareness session on diabetes.

Event details:

Know and understand diabetes
Diet for those having diabetes
Exercises recommended

Speaker: Dr. Pradeepbhai Patel & Diabetes Team (Spandan Hospital, Chikhali)

Entry fees: FREE

When a new doctor is learning for the first time or when a senior doctor is learning or not learning a new technique, who suffers? Naturally, a patient. When we visit a doctor with a physical problem as a patient, we expect perfection. But it is not easy to get. So, we have to understand how the doctors may make mistakes.

We look for medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science, all enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information and fallible individuals. It is not only science but also habit, intuition and plain guessing. This article is about dealing with mistakes made by doctors and their remedy.

ઢળત્તી ઉમરે તન-મનના માવજત. (૨૦૧૬)

લેખક: પ્રો. ગણેશભાઈ કે. પટેલ

પુરત્તક પરિચય: ડૉ. ભરતચંદ્ર એમ. દેસાઈ

પુરત્તક પરિચય આપનાર પાસે વાચક પુસ્તક કેવું છે, કયા વિષયની છણાવટ કરેલી છે, લેખક કોણ છે, જેવી માહિતીની અપેક્ષા રાખે છે. ઉપરાંત પુસ્તક કાગળ, છાપકામ, જોડણી અને ચિત્રોથી સજાવેલ છે કે કેમ તે પણ જાણવા ઈચ્છે છે.

India-Pakistan relation’s issue is a very complex subject and to summarise it in a 180-page book needs great skill. This interesting book ‘India Vs Pakistan: Why Can’t We Just Be Friends?’ written by Husain Haqqani caught all my attention. I also got an opportunity to present its review to my fellow members of the Senior Citizenship Club. Following their enthusiastic response to my talk, I now have this great urge to share the review with my blog readers as well.

I shall try by introducing the author, telling about different wars, what leaders of India, Pakistan and other nations tell and finally the conclusion.

The Author: Hussain Haqqani

Hussain Haqqani is a Pakistani, who is a former Pakistani Ambassador to the US. Not only that, but he was also an advisor to four Pakistani Prime Ministers including Late Benazir Bhutto. The author is currently the Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. The authenticity of his writing increases because he is an academician per se and journalist.

To better comprehend the current scenario, we must dive into the Indo-Pak history of close to seven decades. Let’s start with the wars.

One of the recent off-bit topics I’ve read, this one book about ‘Mumbai Mafia’ has been the most interesting, well-researched and well-written. Here is an excerpt from Dawood Ibrahim's journey from “Dongri to Dubai”, and the six decades of Mumbai mafia.

Many of us pass years before final decision to visit this nature's feast adored by a human ( 2400 years ago) Kanheri Caves just near Borivali, Mumbai. It took me 50 years to reach this point, since my first visit to this city in 1965.

Mumbai and caves!

Mumbai was built on seven islands. As old sediments around coastal areas of Kandivali shows us, Mumbai was inhabitable since the stone age. It was mainly occupied by Koli fishing community.

I recently conducted a social study of the status and condition of old-aged people and the old-age homes in Gujarat. This is a combination of the outcome of the study and the book review of a Gujarati book “Vrudhdhata Ni Samasya” by Dr Hiteshkumar N. Patel.

Our mind is nothing but a flow of thoughts, just like a river with flowing water. One’s personality is shaped by one’s thoughts. If our thoughts are good, we feel happy and radiate confidence and charm around us. Paying attention to managing one’s thoughts is a must. But, how to do that?

While alive, we feel the life to be full of problems and troubles. We remain stressed around even trivial issues. We keep searching for the problem-solving methods. Here is one answer.

Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

– Gautama Buddha

We all know ‘Anger’ does not do any good to anybody. Almost all of us have dealt with it very closely, either as the recipient, the 'perpetrator' or often both. Then why do we fail to stay away from getting angry every off and on? Let’s take a deep dive into what anger is all about and if there is anything we can do to stay away from getting angry at all.

When you are young and earning reasonably more, spending becomes an inescapable habit. There is no brake that can stop your consumerism from growing bigger when you have a credit card! Well, ‘financial discipline’ is the first condition for happy living and enjoying a tension-free, stress-free life. I thought I must show the ideal way with a few handy tips.

I know the title create some ambiguity around its meaning. Here’s the story: the author was a medical student studying at Surat during 1969-1974. Being an offspring of a middle-class family, all his parents could send him every month was Rs. 100 (One hundred). No doubt, this was more than 25% of his father’s salary and the rest 75% was to be spent by remaining nine members of the family. So, I used to receive Rs. 100 by MT (money transfer) at Bank of Baroda, Vanita Vishram (Surat) branch. Now this amount was exhausted in total on day one itself – so the remaining 29 days of the month had to be spent without any money – ‘zero balance’ stage, for all five years of the under graduation. This makes the story titled "Life without money - 24 hours x 29 days x 60 months"!

An Adivasi girl Sangita at Nahari Hotel, Pangarbari (near Wilson Hills, Gujarat) teaches us the Indian culture and way of welcoming guests!

On 15-Jun-2016, my friend Sanjay Mahant and I visited a scenic hill-station in South Gujarat – Wilson Hills (near Dharampur). We wandered during the noon enjoying the view of the hill-station and chitchatting. We just did not think of the time while experiencing the pleasing wind and nature.

This is a rare story of how a person from Valsad (Gujarat) turned into someone serving Aadivasi (tribal) girls far away from his home in the interiors of the Dharampur forests.

Naresh Ramanandi, my friend Sanjay Mahant’s brother-in-law, is a dedicated follower of Shri Rang Avadhoot Bapji of Nareshwar. Bapji once told I shall take rebirth as an Adivasi. So in search of Shri Avadhoot Bapji, Nareshji opted to reach this area and thought of some service activity.

It was a Thursday, otherwise a working day at my hospital, but I chose to declare it a holiday because my friend Sanjay Mahant and I asked each other to go for an event at Kanya Chhatralaya, Vagavad (near Dharampur, Gujarat). In turn, surprise visit to this hill-station materialised on 15-June-2016.

One of the less visited hill-stations and waiting to be developed for tourist needs, this is one of the best hilly places I have ever seen. If you want to share nature in a less crowded, say lonely place, Wilson Hills is for you. This 2500 feet high place is 25 km away from Dharampur and 130 km from Surat. We can easily reach here by very good roads in the scenic Western Ghats.

What nobody knows about this hill-station is, this is the only place 2500 feet high showing glimpse of the sea!

In Greece, there is a law about marriages. It forces you to give a detailed advertisement of marriage decision telling about both bride and groom.... one month in advance, in the newspaper.

I think this exercise gives you time to reconsider regarding the prudence of your decision. You may analyse your said partner and think about compatibility. Then the chances of cancelling the decision are more.

Or readers of the news may warn you about the drawbacks of the said partner, leading to no marriage at the said place.

Your mouth must actively be closed.

Or else, bacteria, insects and unwanted calories will be engulfed leading to diseases, obesity and other undesired troubles. The tongue behind will kill you if you inadvertently and imprudently overuse it.

See, the creator of human body ''God'' has kept nose and ears permanently open and eyes also open most of the time, except while sleeping. However, the mouth has to be kept closed all the time except for speaking and eating.

After getting married, the wife changes her name and adds husband's name. Similarly, the husband should also add wife's name to his. And both can drop their fathers' names.

After the wedding, the wife wears "Mangal Sutra" and applies "Bindi" on her forehead. The married man - the husband - too should find out similar symbolic marks on neck and forehead. And till then, he should copy wearing Mangal Sutra and Bindi.

If you want to ignore strict dieting and stress of not getting to eat this and that... Be diet conscious!

Let us start afresh...

Avoid cakes in any celebration... be it a birthday, wedding anniversary, promotion or success in the examination. It was never used in such events in the past; it is a present-day wrong fashion!
Second is ice-cream in any form... Kulfi, Cones, Milk-shakes, Cups, Falooda or even ice-cream pakoda!

Think this over. The ratio of the male-female population today is 1000:920, meaning 100:92, or to be simplest 10:9. Meaning thereby if every 9 women marry one man each... one out of 10 men will remain unmarried.

Now think...

What is the remedy if all the men wanted to get married? The only ethical remedy would be, that one of every nine women should marry two men.

As far as you are sharing your views, events and a few of your photos, everything is fair enough and natural. If you are too much eager to ask for so many likes, comments and sharing your presentation, frustration is imminent!

Girls do "Gauri Vrat" to get a good husband. After getting one, they do "Kadava Chouth" and "Vat Savitri Poonam Vrat". This is customary amongst all.

At the same time, boys and later the married men do not follow any such ritual, nor do they do any fasting at all.

Present day thinking leads to breaking a relation on many occasions. It is undesirable but still natural. Don't get panicked about it; relax and think over the following:

When you hear or read some intelligent people like Osho, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev or any alike, you start agreeing to whatever they say. Not because you are his follower or student, but because the content is true. Then you hear or read what he tells about some other topic and you again agree in total. Now the paralysing of your intelligence has begun.

You surrender in total. Without your awareness, you stop thinking and become dependent on him. This is "paralysing intelligence".

Beware!

When you are happy and relaxed, you feel everything is going well. This results in the negligence of four musts for health:

Exercise
Diet consciousness
Rest
Sleep

The end result is an unconsciously added obesity... a lifetime friend!

We receive messages in conversations and communications, and a reply or at least some response is expected by the sender. But more often than not, this replying does not take place. Even we are unaware of this and find no problem with this attitude. We do not feel sorry for not responding. I asked why this happens and this article is the outcome of the said question.

While talking, someone asks a question and waits for the reply with frustration of getting none. Similarly we receive letters, messages on mobile phone, Whatsapp, Facebook, e-mails, Twitter and many other methods we use on the internet. Everywhere, the ‘replying’ is surprisingly missing. You will be surprised to know, the reasons are either absent or practically insignificant-trivial. Even when one remains absent at a wedding, birthday party, marriage anniversary, inaugural function or any such important occasion where he/she was invited, they do not convey any message of greeting and regarding his absence.

We are social animals. We have friends and relatives. Being socially attached, we need and desire to meet them. So the question is: Where do you meet them nowadays?

Well, honest and multiple answers to this simple question are quite simple. Let me enumerate the list of present-day meeting places.

Whatever smartness or intelligence one has, to anticipate the probable attitude of the future partner is difficult. So for the continuation of the marriage, adjustment and compromises are must, compulsory.

One has to marry because the law does not allow man-woman physical relations at random and society has laid certain norms of man-woman staying together. Though liberate present-day scenario allows live-in relations and physical relationship without much fuss, marriages are unavoidable.

Once decided to marry, the second question arising is the method – the technique of the wedding. How many persons to be invited, the place of the wedding, the menu and its preparation and the details of the function is the subject of this article.

Are credit cards a BOON? – YES.
Are credit cards a CURSE? – YES.

You may be surprised reading this answer to these questions appearing rather simple. But the exercise of this article is to compare the advantages and drawbacks of credit cards after understanding the issues relating to it and finally, deciding where the truth lies.

How does someone's habit bother you?
What is your concern about a person's habit?
Before discussing about the habits in general and bad habits in particular, I would like to reply these two questions.

We, the humans, are social animals. We live together a life in a society with people around us. Many a times, the dialogue with any individual with bad habits irritates us, disturbs our mood and sometimes makes us angry. Thus the awareness about good manners without bad habits is highly important. You see, habits die hard. But the bad habits die harder!

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ઢળત્તી ઉમરે તન-મનના માવજત. (૨૦૧૬)

Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

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