What is in a name?

courtesy:bendib.com

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that he would ask RBI to take a look at the demand for establishing Islamic banking in India .He was responding to a query on the subject at a press conference he addressed along with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. He said the pressure was mounting on the RBI  for such an establishment.The statement is significant as it comes in the backdrop of the RBI governor D Subbarao’s statement that Islamic banking cannot be allowed within the current rules of the RBI. “With the present set Banking Regulation Act, Islamic banking just cannot take place as many of the banking principles in place are based on interest payments. However, Islamic banking is possible through a separate legislation,” He said.

It must be recalled that the Kerala High Court had recently asked Kerala’s CPM controlled state government to keep away from a new company that was registered under the Sharia laws of banking. Former Union Minister Subramaniam Swamy had petitioned the court against the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation taking the lead to start an Islamic bank with private players ( Mostly NRI businessmen). Some leading NRI investors had approached Minister Elamarom Kareem who quickly agreed to the proposal and soon KSIDC came out with the investment offer. The bank would not pay any interest to customers, but only “ profit”, while a Sharia board would decide what sort of investments it would make..

In his PIL, Mr Swamy had said that public money was being appropriated for favouring a particular religion in a secular country, as KSIDC, an arm of the state, offered to take 11% stake in the bank.

A section of “liberal” opinion within the country is backing the idea. Jurists like VR Krishna Iyer are of the view that Islamic banking, that prohibits levying of interest, are humanistic in nature. ( He often swims against the current) M D Nalappat ( Madhavikkutty turned Kamala Suraiya’s son) wrote an article supporting Islamic Banking during the International Seminar on Islamic Banking. http://www.isifk.com/mdnalappa/

Islamic finance is based on the generation of assets which are structured to be Islamic law or Sharia-compliant. The sharia bans usury or the charging of interest ( riba) on money lent to others. The issue then is to find alternative routes to ensuring a margin between the cost of funds and the return they earn to cover intermediation costs and make a profit.Whatever, methods to generate profits are indirectly methods to circumvent  Sharia laws.  It is against Islam to take "interest", but can accept "profit" from investment.

Having said this, one must also remember that the world’s leading financial hubs all have Islamic Banking Centres. London, Zurich and New York are the leading Islamic Banking centres, but the major fund holders are Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Islamic banking market continues to flourish around the world with current estimates suggesting that assets managed by Islamic banks are in excess of $700 billion (predominately concentrated in the Middle East)  and expected to cross a  trillion by 2013. It is likely that if India opens up Islamic Banking, funds would flow in, considering the fact that we have ideal investment conditions and a large Muslim population.

A curious project is said to have been undertaken in England, that is the establishmen of a  " Roman Catholic Bank".The name of the bank would be "Anglo Universal Bank" and the aim would be "protection and developementof Catholic Banking interests through out the world"!
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D1EF8395A137B93C7A9178FD85F4D8784F9).

Other religions are likely to follow the suit.

There is apprehension among many Indians on the prospects of Islamic Banking. There are fears that it would further ignite the ongoing religious issues, and that funds could be diverted to religious establishments for anti national interests. Islamic Banks will be governed by Sharia Councils,and not the government.

It is time that our policy makers think seriously about matters of national interest before blabbering in public. Singh obviously has some difficulty to speak and walks around like a mechanised robot, and when he speaks, sounds as if Sonia Ji is speaking.

Illustration by: DinarStandard.com

Death of a poet

Noted Malayalam poet Ayyappan died here in Trivandrum yesterday. He was 61.


Ayyappan was found lying unconscious at Thampanoor, near the city’s railway station on Thursday evening, and was shifted to the hospital by the police , where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. His body was kept in the mortuary as unidentified before the doctor in charge yesterday identified it during his routine rounds.


Unmarried and leading a bohemian lifestyle, the poet was known for his intensity, meditative beauty and romance in his poetry. He did not have a family of his own. An abusive alcoholic, Ayyappan described himself as “a poet from the gutters”. The poet had a large number of readers, specially youngsters. He used to loiter the streets and lanes near the Secretariat. He was a wanderer and used to sleep any where he felt like, often at railway stations, and occasionally used to take refuge at friends. His poetry carried the stamp of anarchy, anger and angst, with repeated reference to hunger and destiny.


Ayyappan was orphaned in childhood. He lost his father when he was one year old and mother at 15. “While my friends were carrying me on their shoulders after I won a school election in Class IX, I saw an ambulance speeding past with the body of my mother,” Ayyappan wrote about his losses in childhood.


He had nothing to call his own. He died the way he lived.


He was awarded this year’s Asan Memorial Prize, considered to be the highest literary award in Malayalam. He had been awarded the Sahithya Academy Award earlier, in 1999.


Ayyappan wrote more than two thousand poems starting from his student days. His famous works include ‘Maalamillaatha Paambu’ (snake without a hole) ‘Buddhanum Aankuttiyum’ (Budha and the baby elephant) and ‘Veyil’ (sunshine). He also published a collection of short stories titled Onakaazhchakal( Onam Offerings).


Police who conducted inquest in the hospital found on him a poem replete with his hallmark acidic imagery, scribbled on a piece of paper .It makes a prediction about an arrow that could pierce his body anytime. He had written the poem, to be read at the award ceremony. It was as if he had foreseen his destiny. The organizers announced that they will recite the poem at the ceremony.


Soon there was an outpouring of condolences from known and unknown personalities. Politicians crowded the hospital in no time. Some of them were in tears. Contemporary poets wore the masks of sorrow. A huge crowd gathered at the hospital premises. They were unhappy at the delay in the cremation process. (The sad thing was that no one had identified him till a day after his death!)


As usual, the Manorama daily covered Ayyappan’s death with a full page cover story. There was Ayyappan’s life story, a description of his poverty and the sad state he lived in, and even photos of his sister and her family, the room in which Ayyappan used to sleep while at her house and so on. There was also a picture of Ayyappan sleeping on a pavement at Ernakulam, some time back.


In Kerala, a person like this gets fame and respect only after his death. And everything is forgotten in few days.There is an outpour of grief and condolences from everywhere now. On his behalf there will be prizes, endowments, monuments, and what not! There are no more places for statues at Trivandrum. Every nook and corner is occupied by statues smudged with bird droppings. Probably Ayyappan would escape that ordeal.

Masters of Pain

I had my first renal colic ( Kidney Stone) when I was a third year medical student. I had gone home after the examinations and woke up from sleep with agonizing pain. Soon the pain increased further and moved down to the left testes. It was as if it was going to explode. The only time I wished I didnt have them and if I were a female! I was drenched in sweat and yelled out in pain. Somehow my brother managed to take me to Alphonsa Nursing Home run by Dr Jose. I was writhing in pain all along. The nurse told us that the doctor was not at the clinic.( It was about 3 in the morning).I managed to tell her I was a medical student and from what I had learned I thought it was renal colic. She called the doctor and got permission to give me Injection Baralgan. (The drug was banned later). I cannot describe the relief I got. I thought the fat nurse was an angel. It was bliss.Pain relief after a colic is orgasmic.



I had similar colic many times after that. I always felt that  it was one of the worst pains anyone could have. Because I have felt the pain, I always have sympathy to those who suffer the colic .
On a weekend last year I was woken up from sleep by the telephone ringing. Half awake I looked at the clock and it was three in the morning. I heard the cry of a voice at the other end. “Dr, This is S.. I have severe abdominal pain, and I am going to die”
He was alone, his family having left on a vacation.
“Is there someone to take you to the hospital?”
“Dr, I cannot move, I will die, please help” and the phone went dead.


I had never done house calls before , my job never involved such work. I had kept some painkiller injections at home for my own use, in case. I took some medicines and syringes and my hospital bag and reached his home. The door was open. S was lying on the floor rolling in pain, sweaty and pale. Few short questions and I thought he had kidney colic.

“Have you any drug allergy?” I asked. He would not care even if he had, but I had to.
I loaded the syringe , ( after many years since I left the medical college !) placed him on his tummy and gave him the injection. I prayed to all Gods that he should not have an allergy. I had seen patients developing fatal reactions to Voltaren. His pain was relieved in few minutes, color came back to him and he got up and lay down on the sofa.


“Dr, I will never forget this in my life” He said.
“Don’t worry, take rest and come to the hospital for tests tomorrow” I said.
His investigations later proved he had a kidney stone. He used to tell me often about the pain he had.


When his wife joined him later, he was describing the pain to his wife and said
“This is the worst of pains anyone can have”.
His wife smiled and said” How do you know? The pain of delivery is the worst, only we  women know that.”

That led to an argument on the comparison of pains of kidney stone and that of delivery. We reached nowhere. The following week, he came to my flat and was carrying a lunch box. He said, it was from his wife. It was a full meal with all Malayali curries and accompaniments. He didn’t come back to take his lunch box. I had another call from him a week later to let me know that his stone was removed, and then no more. The promise” I will never forget this”, is never taken seriously by us, doctors. Probably his whole gratitude was packed in to that lunch box.
I have always heard such discussions comparing the severity of pains. Kidney stone is accepted as a master of pain, and women would definitely place the pain of vaginal delivery as the worst. I stumbled up on such a discussion on the net. I was surprised at the way people look at it and the kind of ideas they come up with. Many take it as a joke, especially those who never suffered pain.
The discussion went on somewhat like this. Many had commented as anonymous.

“A kidney stone is not a human being. He probably won't shit his bed while passing it, and if he does take a shit, he'll know about it WHILE he's passing the stone, not find out after. Oh, and if he likes, he can still have sex afterwards... women pretty much tell you never to touch them again after they've given birth. it's not really that bad...  Suck it up”......anonymous lady.
“Yes, giving birth might be a little more painful. But passing a kidney stone as a guy is definitely comparable. It's like trying to shove a strawberry through a McDonald's straw without altering the strawberry. It's difficult and would stretch out the inside of the p…..  and would cause extreme pain. How would you know, anyway? You're a girl.....anonymous male
Yes, giving birth is painful and agonizing, but really you're choosing to have a child and it's 100% preventable. You can't bitch too much about something you caused.”
"I've passed a kidney stone before, and I gave birth. The pain was basically the same. The child at the end made the pain worthwhile whilst the stone at the end made me hate the world”. :P
“Your penis doesn't have to be stitched up after from being torn apart, and I'm guessing you don't have a man begging you for sex like month later, right? Lol...I'm sorry labor and childbirth is WAY worse, not only for the whole labor part, but the recovery.”

“Push... push...
IT'S A BOY! Two grams!
Enjoy your newborn pet rock OP!” :D

“If it makes you feel better, there is a tiny catfish in(I think  in the amazon) called the toothpick fish that has been known to swim right up inside a man's d..., wedge itself inside with barbs, thrash around to make you bleed and drink the blood. Victims have said the pain is so bad that some cut off their penis to relieve the pain.” by skyeyez


“They swim up women's urethras as well but we can't cut ours off D..     by bandgeek

“Cheer up, at least you won't have to pay child support. :) ”

There were so many crack comments, many too vulgar to bring here. I checked on this amazon fish and was surprised to find it to be true. ( ‎Candiru (English and Portuguese) or candirú (Spanish), also known as cañero or toothpick fish, are a number of genera of parasitic freshwater catfish in the family Trichomycteridae,all are native to the Amazon Rivers).   Those of you who travel,beware.

Pain is difficult to measure and titrate.For the person who suffers,his pain is the worst,whatever.Toothache and ear pain has some irritating character which makes them unbearable.The interesting thing is how easily we talk of pain and how we connect  strange ideas and informations.  I was also thinking how easy it is for people to forget the promises they make while sick or in pain or in any kind of needs. Our memories are short, it seems.

Goodbye, Old Friend

Honestly, I didn’t know about this till I stumbled up on it. It seems I am unaware of events happening around me. And blogging didn’t help me either. If the other half of the world is ripped off our planet, I wouldn’t know about it either. And it would take me few years to know that our planet is only a half globe, the shape of sand cakes we make in coconut shells.

Till last week, if someone had asked me how many planets are there in the solar system, the answer would have been nine. I didn’t know about the fate of Pluto. The exclusion of Pluto from the list has left the solar system with only eight planets. Pluto was classified as a planet since its discovery in 1930, but in 2006, it was re-classified as a 'dwarf planet' by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). According to the IAU, dwarf planet is a celestial body orbiting the Sun, which is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, but is not capable of clearing its neighboring region of the planetesimals.  (Any of innumerable small bodies thought to have orbited the sun during the formation of the planets) Other dwarf planets identified by IAU include Eris, Ceres, Haumea,  Orkus, Varuna ,Ixion, Pallas, Hygeia and four yet unnamed bodies (2003 EL₆₁, 2005 FY₉, 2002 TX₃₀₀, and 2002 AW₁₉₇).

People the world over are divided into two groups - those who think there are nine planets, and those who know that there are eight planets.

In August 2006, the planet Pluto was eliminated from the list of planets by the International Astronomical Union. We now have only eight planets orbiting the sun. Clyde Tombaugh discovered the so called planet in 1930 at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff Arizona. Now you can forget that.

Also forget what we were taught as kids. I remember the list of planets was one of the long lists I had learned by heart.

To be considered a planet it should be a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. Pluto is taken off the list because its oblong orbit overlaps Neptune’s.

A friend of mine tells me that this whole thing is the fault of George Bush. He was responsible for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami and Global warming. Now, “because of his inept administration we must eliminate Pluto as a planet,” a spokesman for the Curious Scientists Society said. ( I don’t brag, but incidentally, I am the President of the society, and due to sky rocketing real estate prices, we have  our offices at my home). The spokesman for the group also said that “Bush somehow got the notion that Osama bin Laden was hiding on Pluto and demanded that our group vote to disregard it as a planet thereby eliminating his hiding place”.

In any event, we now only have eight planets and this should make it easier for the school children to learn eight rather than nine.

I don’t know what will happen to the astrologers who survive on the Navagrahas. (The nine planets)

Bring some nobility back

"Two types of individuals graduate from medical school. Those who view medicine as an occupation and those who view medicine as a vocation. The former are called Doctors. The latter, Physicians. Sustaining the Dignity and Nobility of Medical Care is a cogent reminder that being a true physician requires not only service to our patients, but also to the gift of our profession..."

– Patrick J. Loehrer, Jr, MD, Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center

Medicine is a noble calling and it is a rare privilege to care for patients. I have always believed strongly that we, who have that privilege, also bear the responsibility for respecting the essential nobility of providing medical care. For a variety of reasons it is challenging today in what we call modern medicine to sustain that spirit of care and to put trust in the system of care.

Many of the challenges, which are as old as the practice of medicine, have to do with medical ethics and money. There is far more money at stake in the current medical marketplace than at any time in history, and companies that make products used in medical care have enormous financial and political influence, and so are hospitals too. Another challenge is the implicit belief by the public that there is a medicine to fix anything. This often leads to greater difficulty in accepting that one's medical problem cannot be cured or in facing the prospect of one's death or the death of a loved one.

It is a long and arduous journey for an aspiring medical student.. It takes close to 15 years to become a complete doctor. You have about five years of medical school, another three years of post graduate studies, then specialization and maybe few years before settling down and practicing. Youngsters today do not have the patience to wait for about 15 years. For that matter, even their family members do not have the patience. The best and the brightest are no longer expected to enter the noblest profession, the practice of medicine. People pay millions to buy admissions for their children to medical schools. With money, they make them doctors, who otherwise would be incompetent to gain admission to any University. That is a big investment. Why do they do that? The investment should bring in returns to them some way or other.

Young physicians are being told that they will find jobs in the health care industry. Health care industry is a term calculated to depersonalize the practice of medicine, and thereby de-professionalize it. Industry is defined as the manufacture or production of goods on a large scale. In contrast, the practice of medicine is a calling, a personal service delivered on the smallest possible scale, one to one. With the effort to reduce the healing professions including physicians to an industry, the terms customer and consumer are used increasingly to replace patient.

Referring to the patient as a customer in a subtle way denies the essence of the patient-doctor relationship.

Doctors now advertise in ways which, until recently, were held to be unethical and unworthy of any profession. The result has been a shift in emphasis. Caring for the patient is giving way to competing for the patient with hopes of stimulating a sale in the medical market.

I recently saw an advertisement in the local newspaper.  Even though the item was given as news, it was obviously, propaganda. The news was that” Doctors save the life of a woman”. I was amazed at this news. Doctors are supposed to save lives, and what else? So I read on.

The story was headed by a half page picture of a  lady doctor wearing the doctor’s coat, sitting with her computer and an ultrasound scan picture. A patient had an ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the uterus).This patient was admitted to the hospital where this gynecologist was working. She did the ultrasound exam and could not locate the pregnancy. The radiologist repeated the ultrasound and found that the pregnancy was implanted on to the surface of the liver, which is rare. Then the general surgeon operated and removed the growth. And finally, the gynecologist is seen sitting with a great smile of ‘Eureka’. And her biography and address naturally follows the news item. In Malayalam there used to be a saying “ the man leaning on the wall took away the girl”.(Mannum Chaari Ninnavan Pennum Kondupoyi)

This is the limit to which medical profession and doctors have degraded. They resort to anything and everything to make money. Ethics are long forgotten. I only wish they get the time and peace to enjoy this kind of money. 

Present day Health insurance has given way to sky rocketing medical bills. A doctor, who charges hundred rupees usually, will give a bill for five hundred, if the insurance pays the bill. And on top of this, all unnecessary investigations are added up on and repeated to make the final bill as huge as possible. Doctors play along in this game, as they are given a cut in this.

Law and philosophy serve as effective guides for patient management, but the physician must ultimately rely on his or her own judgment, based on moral and ethics, taking the facts and values of the individual patient into account. Physicians' sensitivity, empathy, integrity and clinical expertise should merge to give them a firm sense of what constitutes effective treatment and patient satisfaction. After all, that is the purpose of the profession, isn’t it?