And while he walks the Stairway to….
I remember the time we spent,
The memories we created;
The joys we shared,
The sorrows we kept hidden;
The drinks we shared,
The stories we didn’t tell;
The laughters we created,
The thoughts we didn’t express;
The togetherness we knew,
And now we won’t feel it anymore;
But I shall miss you, everytime I am alone with my breathe!
Goodbye old friend,
I wish I understood you!
Over the past couple of months, mankind has taken giant leaps in the field of “artificial” intelligence. Post which many doomsday and gloomy predictions have started doing rounds.
What I feel is, this depends on the perspective of one’s vision.
Knowing what humans are capable of doing, being able to use only 4-5% of their brain’s capabilities, imagine the outcome of being able to access more.
The depths of science we can reach, new technologies to unlock, probably a higher thinking and maturing of our own brain into a sentient being. To be One with nature.
This could be possible, depending upon how we unlock our brain, to the data processing speed we are going to achieve with AI .
On the other hand, our species has been at this juncture long back. Almost over 60 million years slowly as we developed our intellect, and got to access more of our brain capabilities, we started identifying “self” from the rest of the animal kingdom. Creating layers upon layers, over a normal animal life.
Look at where it has got us- The parasites of Mother Earth.
With increased intellect, our animal instincts (of hunger, of survival, of greed, of jealousy, of carnal desires, fear of death etc.) haven’t vanished; infact our tools have gotten deadlier.
If the AI is plugged-in, to process each human thought, it would probably have to be saved from itself. A system wall, to create a blockade for such highly toxic thoughts, must be introduced to not corrupt something that can be so powerful.
The AI species needs Humans, only for creation of a power source. Once it develops a method to get an unending power supply, it probably might spell doom for human species.
This “Artificial” Intelligence is, a major software upgrade for Humans, and we need to revere it.
Humanity once again has come to the crossroads of destiny, the path we choose to take,
will decide whether AI becomes,
a part of human evolution or that of human extinction.
I hope for space exploration rather than space wars, and an answer to the question-
“Why does it all exist?”
Hit in the midst of a writer’s block!
He scratched the lines from many a book,
Believed that it will come,
An inspiration
A motivation
A story
A poem
A line
A word!
Something to just jot down again on these pages, blank…
A day went,
A week.
A few months went by,
He still didn’t much of it think.
A year went by
And he still didn’t lose belief…
He breathed down and stuck to the basics,
Avoided blank pages.
Kept his eyes and ears open to spark his brain again;
Kept his mind fresh and kept reading pieces.
Kept meeting interesting people and listened to their stories;
Travelled to various places,
But alas! nothing helped.
Nothing could jog his mind to fill in the blank pages.
A year, turned into years’, and as pages remained blank,
He started doubting, in self that could he ever write again.
Scrolling endlessly over years, down the lines of social media posts,
Seeing what all people around were achieving, while he creatively rots…
He decided to be consumed by the new AI might,
to help him write,
But not without a fight, he thought,
Decided to give it one last try!
Opened his usual app and stared at the page blank,
And it struck him,
He started typing,
And just like in the past
the words started pouring…
Within 10 minutes, he wrote down everything.
When it was done,
he realized,
this post though done in a couple of minutes,
was three years in the making!
It was for naught, his struggle,
he smiled,
even a blank page,
could be inspirational!
This is a story, which has remained with me since i first read it in school.. something that i really believe in, and in a way has shaped my Nature, growing up. In writing this story, author Art Buchwald, has inspired one life for sure..I hope to carry on “the dream”..
I was in New York the other day and rode with a friend in a taxi. When we got out, my friend said to the driver, “Thank you for the ride. You did a superb job of driving.”
The taxi driver was stunned for a second. Then he said, “Are you a wise guy or something?”
“No, my dear man, and I’m not putting you on. I admire the way you keep cool in heavy traffic.”
“Yeah,” the driver said and drove off.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“I am trying to bring love back to New York,” he said. “I believe it’s the only thing that can save the city.”
“How can one man save New York?”
“It’s not one man. I believe I have made that taxi driver’s day. Suppose he has 20 fares. He’s going to be nice to those 20 fares because someone was nice to him. Those fares in turn will be kinder to their employees or shopkeepers or waiters or even their own families. Eventually the goodwill could spread to at least 1,000 people. Now that isn’t bad, is it?”
“But you’re depending on that taxi driver to pass your goodwill to others.”
“I’m not depending on it,” my friend said. “I’m aware that the system isn’t foolproof so I might deal with ten different people today. If out of ten I can make three happy, then eventually I can indirectly influence the attitudes of 3,000 more.”
“It sounds good on paper,” I admitted, “but I’m not sure it works in practice.”
“Nothing is lost if it doesn’t. It didn’t take any of my time to tell that man he was doing a good job. He neither received a larger tip nor a smaller tip. If it fell on deaf ears, so what? Tomorrow there will be another taxi driver I can try to make happy.”
“You’re some kind of a nut,” I said.
“That shows how cynical you have become. I have made a study of this. The thing that seems to be lacking, besides money of course, for our postal employees, is that no one tells people who work for the post office what a good job they’re doing.”
“But they’re not doing a good job.”
“They’re not doing a good job because they feel no one cares if they do or not. Why shouldn’t someone say a kind word to them?”
We were walking past a structure in the process of being built and passed five workmen eating their lunch. My friend stopped. “That’s a magnificent job you men have done. It must be difficult and dangerous work.”
The workmen eyed my friend suspiciously.
“When will it be finished?”
“June, a man grunted.
“Ah. That really is impressive. You must all be very proud.”
We walked away. I said to him, “I haven’t seen anyone like you since The Man From LaMancha.”
“When those men digest my words, they will feel better for it. Somehow the city will benefit from their happiness.”
“But you can’t do this all alone!” I protested. “You’re just one man.”
“The most important thing is not to get discouraged. Making people in the city become kind again is not an easy job, but if I can enlist other people in my campaign. . .”
“You just winked at a very plain-looking woman,” I said.
“Yes, I know,” he replied. “And if she’s a schoolteacher, her class will be in for a fantastic day.”
Distrubed mind
Broken heart
Tiring limbs
Gloomy soul
Emotionless face;
Look directly into
Innocent ailing eye’s inquiring,
“Can I trust you with my life?”
The warmonger within smiles
Another puzzle to unravel
Another battle to fight.
Good afternoon respected judges,colleagues in the audience and my fellow contestants, my name is Dr Vrushank Naik, i am a final year resident in department of Pediatrics, in our very own KJ SOMAIYA HOSPITAL. Over these last few years of working in a hospital setup, i have come to interact with hundreds of patients and their families, many good memories and few otherwise. But it has been those few otherwise, that have stuck and made me question our role as doctors, in the society today. Do our patients consider us as healers or just gatekeepers of mortality, who put a price tag on each life. It is this sad realisation, which makes me question myself each day, Are we really Monsters, to have the power to own a life, we didn't create and sell it for inflated prices? Has man's own greed for money corrupted the basic needs of survival. With advent of technology and deeper understanding of human body, we definitely are better off than what we were 50 years ago. Science today has advanced so far that it has fed to our God-like ego, wherein we can tailor kids in petri dishes, grow organs from stem cells, have a super vision to see deep within our own body without being invasive. But all this comes at a cost. Commercialisation of healthcare has rapidly occurred over the last few decades, raising the cost of healthcare worldwide. A study done in US concluded that that population, financially in the top 1%, is expected to live until the age of 87.3 years, nearly 10-15 years longer than those in the bottom 1%.
If such is the disparity in the developed nations, consider the situation, in a country like India, wherein nearly 22 per cent of India’s 1.6 billion population is below poverty line, capped at an income of just Rs 27 per day and Let’s not forget the millions who earn even less than ₹100 per day.
The average expenditure incurred in a private facility is 6 times more than that provided by the government.
Govt hospitals aim at serving people and maintaining heath care rather than balance sheets.
A private doctor gets pay/incentives depending on the number of patient he sees or surgeries he performs, thus inadvertently introducing small scale or big malpractices to earn more.
With only 17-20% (according to 2014 survey) of the Indian population being covered by health insurances, the major brunt falls on a person’s household finances to see to it that his/her loved ones get the best possible treatment.
Don’t you think it puts a common man in a dilemma whether he should feed his family or treat them? This in turn becomes a vicious cycle of disease and poverty, a burden which the country as a whole has to suffer. So whom are we kidding when we say we got the best infrastructure and hospitals compared to few decades before if a common person cannot readily access it.
A solution if not affordable is not a solution at all.
We grew up learning that health is wealth but this unchecked commercialization of healthcare has reached a point where, we are teaching our future generations, that only wealthy are healthy, and that’s not right!
As Charles Darwin once said It’s the survival of the fittest,
lets not make it the survival of the richest.
Thank you.:)
EXTRA-
The total expenditure of India on health care as a proportion of GDP in 2015 was 3.89% out of which, the governmental health expenditure was just 1%. On the other hand, the out-of-pocket expenditure (what patients pay directly) was 65.06%. (current healthcare expenditure). Is it really benefiting us as a society. Commercialization of healthcare has only made it clear that now Wealth is health.
(The average expenditure incurred per person in India for a hospital stay is Rs 4,452 in a government hospital and Rs 31,845 at a private facility.)
(only 10% of India’s registered allopathy doctors working in government setup, there is a massive misproportion of skilled labour tending to the healthcare needs of nearly 70% of our population. Draining of doctors away from public)
In the end all i would like to say is healthcare is a human right. Fair and equal opportunity to attain it should be each human beings birthright
Where should i begin this post from, the moment I saw her, or the moment from when i was chosen to come to Somaiya..it feels like it was destined.
We became good friends, hitting off right away with our shared love for food, sports and stories. We gained pounds hogging food, creating stories. And first time in years i smiled. You know a person is perfect, when you bring out the best in each other. If there was anything i thought off, she found out a way to make it better. She took care of every aspect of my life, and gave me a free mind to do the thing i love the most, being a Pediatrician.
The crazy part was not that, we didn’t realise when we fell in love, or how amazing it was to see our families become friends and later one family. The crazy part was when she gifted me a Typewriter, a Hermes 3000 (1966 make), on our engagement day. A gift i had only dreamt about owning when i was a little kid who watched in awe his eldest mama work with authority on a Typewriter, running the family business. It’s these wildly spontaneous things that she does, which make me fall more in love with her everyday.
Not in my wildest dreams did i ever believe the kind of person, God had chosen, to be the part of my life till eternity. You would think eternity is a cliche, but i believe in the fact that the repurcussions of your decisions and actions last forever, even after you die, just like the words written on a Typewriter.
When i look at her in those beautiful eyes, it is nothing short of wonder, to gaze in them and whisper “How perfect could you be!” , and a prayer of thanx (to God), escapes my lips!
Is it really this bad to play this role,To feel, the chosen one to mend this shithole,
Why is it legal to allow him to be surrounded by sorrow, throughout,
Forced to believe its his job to absorb all the sufferings, world around has to flush out,
How can anyone be expected to be sane, when all they hear are cries of pain,
I believe i have earned the right to be callous to the joy of November rain..
Not even two Pennys worth of thought did he give,
before breaking hearts and trashing love,
“Sinner!” they called him, “Be afraid of God!
When Karma strikes, you will be left,like a speck of dust in this desert of sorrow..”
But he felt like God,
Turning a blind eye to the wise words…
Continued tearing into lambs,
drinking blood,
enjoying the red feast he lined up.
A wolf he had become.
Then one day, she did turn up,
In the form of a lamb.
He pounced on her and tried to feed on her,
trying to bleed her like those, whom he had before..
But something did not feel right.
The blood tasted different,
like a poison it slowly wrapped around his heart…
He could feel the warmth engulfing his wind pipe,
choking his very existence..
A feeling, that mysteriously got him addicted to her…
Though she bled,
It was she who was devouring his soul!
It struck him,
but he didn’t care.
Karma was here.
The wolf became a lamb.
Cut out his heart and presented it to her,
with bleeding trembling hands,
he was finally afraid!
God smiled.
Karma opened her fangs,and
Just as softly as she could,
bit into his heart,
tore away his soul,
Vanished into thin air, leaving him for dead.
But he didn’t die,
For something in him was
beating,
burning,
A desire.
Slowly but surely the wolf came back from the dead.
More ferocious more crazy.
A determined man he was,
For he sinned,
To taste Karma again..
How difficult it seemed leading life behind veils,
running through chaotic days,
trying to be a part of something unique..
Freedom they shouted from underneath the smoke filled sky of a remote village,
Pelting stones at the government forces,
The fire within couldn’t be extinguished by a bullet, a bomb nor poisonous gasses..
Freedom they shouted as they raged into the polluted night under city lights, spirits were high and so were they,
breaking laws each day
The fire within was the party they dreamt about each morning to have made it successful today
Freedom they shouted from within the gates of their contaminated institutions, their youthful voice rioting against each other from behind banners with political stench all over
The fire within was that of ambition, morality, misplaced loyalty
For them peace a forgotten term, a state of agitation the only way to lead life in circles as if it were an one-act play aimed for famed immortality..
But along came the Reaper and swished its scythe, extinguishing the flames
In that one instant before death blew away their smoke trail to obscurity,
they realized how uncomplicated life really was
how inevitable was mortality
Vrushank Naik 