Category Archives: Essays

The Delusion and Entitlement of Self-Important Tribes

This happens often! Journalists rarely carry articles against fellow journalists even though they constantly bitch about each other “off-the-record”. It is rare for a doctor to testify against his colleague in court, though in private he will massacre his reputation. Despite infighting, tribes or guilds tend to take care of their own, often insulated from […]

March 29, 2013 – 1:58 pm | By Bhavin Jankharia | Posted in Essays, General, Mumbai Mirror Column, Peeves & Rants | Tagged , , , , | Comments (19)

How Beautiful Should a Voice Look?

Three days ago, a friend (thanks, Tillu), posted a YouTube link on Facebook about Susan Boyle’s performance on the show “Britain’s Got Talent”. After you type Susan Boyle in the search bar on YouTube, you should choose the first video; it is 7:08 minutes long, because it contains her pre-performance build-up as well. Here we […]

April 18, 2009 – 8:25 am | By admin | Posted in Essays, Mumbai Mirror Column, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Damned if you, damned if you don’t

This appeared in today’s Mumbai Mirror The resident doctors all over Maharashtra have again gone on strike this week and its that d

March 5, 2006 – 1:50 am | By admin | Posted in Essays, General, Medicine, Mumbai Mirror Column | Comments (0)

Empathy (Or My Lack of It)…Revisited

I wrote about my empathy drying up almost five years ago. Not much seems to have changed. New Orleans is no more. An entire city

September 11, 2005 – 10:51 am | By admin | Posted in Essays | Comments (2)

Patient Empowerment – Definitely not a Good Thing

The Sunday NY Times has a long article on the travails faced by patients in the US, in this modern world. The article is a must-read for all patients and doctors. It traces the history of the current state of affairs, relating it to the movement for access to information that the baby-boomers demanded in […]

August 15, 2005 – 7:19 am | By admin | Posted in Essays, Medicine | Comments (3)

Its A Small World

We may have reached the 1 billion mark and we may be the second most populous country in the world, but in some respects, we are still a very small community. Last night, we went for a small, surprise birthday party that WFM’s friend’s wife, Pushpa had thrown for her dentist husband, Paresh. Pushpa asked […]

July 8, 2001 – 9:51 am | By admin | Posted in Essays | Comments (0)

It Happens Only in Mumbai…Of Deluges, Treks, Leptospirosis and Wet Mobiles

Currently I am about to finish a week’s prophylactic course of an antibiotic called doxycycline, for a disease called leptospirosis. This is an infectious disease, spread through rat droppings and typically seen in sewage workers. If not picked up early, it becomes deadly and people die because of multiple organ hemorrhaging. I am sure you […]

August 5, 2000 – 4:48 am | By admin | Posted in Essays, Matunga, Rains | Comments (1)

Has My Empathy Dried Up?

I am scared…. Disasters on a big scale just don’t seem to affect me anymore. I couldn’t care less about Kosovo, Kargil, Afghanistan or Turkey. Seeing pictures of devastated people and destroyed places on television or in the Times of India or in Time magazine, reading about the decimation of entire populations….nothing seems to really […]

August 27, 1999 – 9:56 am | By admin | Posted in Essays | Comments Off on Has My Empathy Dried Up?