Editor,
Doctors represent the backbone of any modern nation. They are considered as the angels of life for their great service to the nation and the society. However, in a developing nation like India with more than half of the population being devoid of even minimal healthcare support, strengthening the medical services and ailing health care system of the nation is one of the most important tasks in the next few decades. But the malpractices in which a large number of medical doctors in India are getting involved in rather than providing care to the helpless poor should be brought under the scanner. I would have bowed to them if they would have spent their valuable time in providing medical care to countless helpless and penniless citizens of India who die every day under the open sky without any medical treatment. Under these circumstances I am unable to praise the efforts of wasting money and resources every year on innumerable, useless and redundant medical conferences and seminars across the nation which could have been put to much better use. A part of the money wasted can be used for organizing multi-purpose, free medical camps for the rural poor in remote rural areas and their valuable time could have been better used for poor people in need of critical health care rather than wasting them in ornamental conferences.
I may sound narrow in voicing this and I beg my sincere apologies if I hurt the sentiments of Indian doctors, a section of whom are more interested in only earning money and more money and happily catering to the dedicated medical representatives (read ‘medical sales promoting agents’) with their basket of goodies representing different multinational pharmaceutical companies. Surely there are doctors who are dedicated to the poor, but a considerably large number are only interested in filling their coffers instead of serving the communities in need. The nation that spends huge amounts of money on training a doctor would appreciate physicians spending more time in the hospitals and public dispensaries catering to the helpless rural poor.
Yours etc.,
Saikat Kumar Basu
Lethbridge AB Canada T1J 4B3
The wonder flower
Editor,
The Sanskrit shefali has become shiuli in Bengali to find a glorious space in Bengali literature. This soul-touching flower with its snowy white petals and orange or red centre has tongue twisting scientific name- nyctanthes arbor-tristis. This divine flower is called the queen of night as it prefers the silence of the night to bloom. However, a shiuli tree is known as the tree of sorrow as its delicate flowers fall to touch the ground of Mother Earth at the stroke of dawn much like the falling tear drops. I remember an incident when I was a child. My mother was crying silently and she could not eat anything that day when a shiuli tree near our house was chopped off. It was as if my mother personified the tree of sorrow with her silent tears dropping.
The Mother of Pondicherry identified shiuli as the flower of aspiration. Here aspiration is the call of the being for higher things- for the Divine. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, “Aspiration should be not a form of desire, but the feeling of an inner soul’s need, and a quiet settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek the Divine”. Since shiuli is the embodiment of aspiration that may be the reason why we do not hesitate to pick up the flowers from the ground to offer them to the Gods.
The sacred shiuli fragrance in the air announces that Durga ma is coming home in Bengal. Shiuli flowers, kash flowers and milky white happy-go-lucky clouds in azure sky are associated with the autumnal climax of Bengal which is called Durga puja. Besides its spiritual and surreal significance, shiuli also has tremendous medicinal value. It is used for the treatment of anxiety, restlessness, headache, gastritis and hepatitis. Shiuli leaves are used for the treatment of ringworm, arthritis, fevers, pain and skin problems. Its taste is bitter but it has antibacterial and anti inflammatory compounds. You can rid your dandruff or lice problems by with shiuli treatment. You can also use it as mild purgative at the time of constipation and as expectorant in cough and cold. So we can call it a mother tree that keeps on giving us love and care just for the joy of giving.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata