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The ‘status diabeticus’ - poverty amidst plenty
Dr Govind Hoskeri

‘Rain, rain Everywhere
Not a drop to drink.
Grain grain, Everywhere
Not a morsel to eat
Poverty amidst plenty
Is the state that We doctors call
status diabeticus’

Poverty amidst plenty is the way we doctors call and define ‘diabetes mellitus’. This is what is afflicting the nation right now. The green revolution has succeeded and the granaries all over the country are full. Yet the people are famished. The news readers on all the channels continue to flash the stories of the plight of the famine-struck areas, with the cameras zooming in on the malnourished children. That we are a developing country cannot be challenged… If we replace the word ‘under developed’ by the word ‘developing’, the reality does not change. The foreigners can be lead to believe in the slight change in the wording. That is the art of statesmanship. But one cannot mesmerize the ‘merasmic’ children and their parents who can only shed copious amounts of water in the form of tears. That tearing too will soon dry up, as there is no water to drink. The constitution (the body constitution and not the constitution of the government) conserves the precious water for better vital functions.

When a little boy asked me as to what diabetes is, I had to use all my resources of communication to make him understand what is diabetes. I could not quote my poetry. I could not resort to medical jargon. I could not use the analogy of diabetes in terms of social and governmental apathy. I could not tell him about the famine and the failure of the system of distribution. I could not think of convincing him about the genetic predispositions. I could not mince words to explain the statistical evidence of the complications of diabetes. I could not dwell on the risk factors a diabetic is supposed to be exposed to. I wish medical science gets down to bass tacks and calls it as a ‘situation where what we eat does not become useful to us’ That is what it is. Provided we get to eat.

The hungry stomach is supposed to revolt. We, the Indians do not have that fiber in us. The ‘karma theory’ as is commonly understood, prevents any such thought. On the election eve, if we are fed with the customary slogans and a square meal to be drowned by the ‘deshi stuff,’ at least a hung parliament is born. It depends on the hangover. The winners rejoice and the losers blame the anti incumbency factor. What better anti incumbency factor do they need? When the ‘praja’ is driven to suicide because of lack of simple food ‘dinner diplomacy’ continues, for once disproving the Sanskrit saying that translates as ‘the way the king is, the way the people are’ and vice versa.

Clearly etched in my mind are the words Mr Frank Moraes wrote in his famous editorial on the day Mrs Indira Gandhi lost her watershed election. He used the words “The public memory is too short”. The then elected ‘khichdi’ government chose to persecute her. And the words of the all time great editor became a reality. History has been repeating itself since then. Persecuted, prosecuted, jailed or bailed, when nothing seems to have any effect, what is the solution?

Perhaps the boldest decision ever taken in the political history of the world was the one taken by President Gerald Ford, who refused to persecute the impeached president Nixon after the Watergate. His vision was clear. If he were to persecute Nixon, his whole tenure would have been spent only on the Watergate issue. We pride in aping the West but turn our Nelson’s eye to the best. It is high time that at least the responsible ones should remain focused on the crucial issues. There are many others to perform ‘damage control’ on the party interests accruing over the party funds.

Issuing death certificates, where the cause of death is not being assigned directly to the famine, cannot mask the fact that people are dying due to hunger. Stating the consequent conditions is no way to wish away the reality. Maybe the intentions are innocent. But we have seen what happened to the ‘family planning programme’. The erroneous entries of vasectomies and tubectomies performed even on the nonexistent people and on those who were well past the age of reproduction, led to the fall of a government. The major fallout of this folly is that family planning, as a ‘programme’ has become the nemesis of any political thinking in India. The population explosion cannot be halted and the responsibility of feeding the multiplying millions is bound to be challenging. If the stocks of food were not available, then the plight could have been understood. But poverty amidst plenty is a sorry state of affairs.

The stomach is said to be the brain of the body. There is no second thought about it. The nerve endings of the stomach, when satiated provide the life the grace and the force, the verve and the vigour. We can prove it by the medical documents. But that is unnecessary in the context of what is the common experience of all of us. In response to your editorial on the “prohibitive cost of human insulin”, I am glad to note the reduction in the cost. I hope that the state of diabetes I am referring to, will meet with an injection of humane insulin at any cost.

Or else...

-1-

Arm lengths of desert
To measure
The treasures lost And the
The pleasures cost

I keep on measuring
The such, and so much of which,
Only the sun can scorch The such, and so much of which,
Only the hot sand can blast
The such, and so much of shade
Only the dune can cast

Tears straining down
The salty cheeks Stinging The calloused palms
Of the labor camps

What if it rains
The drops get caught
Between the earth
And the ’Nought’

-2-

I sat by
And saw hopes
Donning new clothes
And parading

The show went on

And when
Frustrations too
Started donning
New robes and dancing
To the wild drums

I sat by
And saw them
Meekly too

(The author is an associate professor, anatomy, Seth G S Medical College and KEM Hospital, Parel, Mumbai and he can be contacted at hoskeri@rediffmail.com )

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