Happy Tihar 2012

Traditional oil lamp called diyo (Photo : Rohit Saxena)

Tihar is festival of Lights and celebrated by Hindus all over the world. It is second great festival after Dashain in Nepal. Also called the Yampanchak (5 days of Yamaraj: the God of Death) it is celebrated from Trayodashi of Kartik Krishna to Kartik Sukla Dwitiya of Hindu calender. Kartik is the 7th month in Hindu calender and generally falls on October -November. The biggest celebration is on the Laxmi Puja : the third day of the festival which falls on the new moon. 

There are several manifestation of  Laxmi (wealth) and Asta Laxmi (literally means 8 Laxmi) is one. The manifestations are called by different names like: 

1. Adi Laxmi (आदि लक्ष्मी) -The First manifestation of Laxmi 
2. Dhanya  Laxmi (धान्य लक्ष्मी) -Granary/Food Laxmi
3. Dhairya Laxmi (धैर्य लक्ष्मी) - Wealth of Patience/Courage 
4. Gaja Laxmi (गज लक्ष्मी) - Wealth of prosperity, good luck 
5. SantanLaxmi (सन्तान लक्ष्मी)-Wealth of continuity, progeny
6. Vijaya Laxmi (विजय लक्ष्मी) -Wealth of victory
7. Vidhya Laxmi (विद्या लक्ष्मी)-Wealth of knowledge 
8. Dhana Laxmi (धन लक्ष्मी) -Monetary wealth

On this day of Laxmi Puja  the night is very dark and it is said that Laxmi: Goddess of Wealth visits to those house which are clean and full of light. So, people are very busy in this festival to make the home and environment clean and tidy. lamps as shown above are lighted on each house making the environment very joyful. In Nepal people also came in group to sing the festival songs called Deusi and Bhailo giving blessing to house owners after getting gifts from house owner. Small children are more happy in this time as they can play songs and use firecrackers on this time. 

People are blessed with all manifestation of wealth : money, food, progeny, knowledge and so on are sure to be happy. On this happy occasion we wish our well wishers a very good time this year too.

Enjoy Tihar with this music video:

Obama wins again

President Barack Obama of USA has won the second presidential election defeating Romney of Republican party thereby flaming the audacity of hope. He became Nobel prize winner in the first year of his presidency though many had questioned for this for doing nothing in the name of peace before his presidency. But his position for ending the war regime in Afghanistan and withdrawal of Army from Iraq has been seen as the good sign of hope in the international arena. In the domestic front his universal healthcare plan for all fellows American is regarded as a basic tenet of human-rights by many people. Other detrimental event in his time is death of Bin laden in the safe hideout of Pakistan in the hands of SEAL. Pakistan is accused of playing double game of receiving billions of dollar from USA in the war against terrorism and protecting the Laden for getting the same. Laden is the master mind of twin tower attack in 2001 that saw death of more than 4,000 innocent people. This has shown that in some day the truth will prevail and nation will be exposed like Prachanda and company of Nepali Maoist were given shelter by Indian regime to devastate Nepal which was exposed so badly in recent times. To be noted that main master mind of Mumbai attack is freely moving in Pakistan these days. So do not protect enemy of one nation for benefit of you otherwise be prepared for the same by others. Because of his soft policy and good oratory power, the brand image of USA has grown in different parts of world than in the times of Bush presidency.

    The greatest strength of Obama is his power to negotiate and ask for the opposition to join in hands for nation development. We from the different nations (Nigeria, India, China or Nepal) where the politics have become the power to grab the national resource and plunder it for personal cause should take lesson from him to move forward for benefit of billions of common people.

    We can learn many things personally from him after his victory speech shown here. He looks modest, appreciative of opposition and positive for the future.

Medical mistakes

Medical mistakes are one of the biggest mistakes caused due to the negligence on the parts of doctors, nurse, relatives or patient itself either through the wrong intake of medicine or overdose or else. There are reports that a wrong patient's surgery was carried out in Bharatpur, Nepal and it was a big hue and cry once revealed. Our  teacher told us that during his operation his doctor left inside the scissors (in Teaching Hospital of Tribhuvan University @ Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal ) and  he had to suffer a severe pain until it was re-diagnosed and removed from abdomen. 

We were thinking that this happened in developing countries where there is much negligence in parts from the so revered medical practice. Doctors are getting life time license for practice and the money minded nature has prevailed over the noble cause to serve the needy patients. But it is interesting that even in the developed countries like USA similar problems have occurred.  Each year about quarter of million (250,000) people died  and millions get injured due to the of medical mistakes in USA alone. It is said to be the 6th biggest Killer (5th place is taken by accident).

Some  common medical mistakes are: 

1. Wrong treating of patients (due to similar name  or else)
2. Surgical gifts (like scissors or cotton left in organ after operation)
3. Fake doctors 
4. Emergency treatment delay
5. Air bubbles in blood
6. Wrong medication/drugs
7. Wrong treatment of parts (like medication or surgery)
8. Infection infestation (Hospital infection like by doctor/nurse: no hand washing by them before treatment)
9. Waking up during operation
10. Power shortage or machinery breakup during operation 

There are many ways to prevent the medical errors like proper licensing system (for medical occupation and hospital), informed and proactive patients and other required check and balance  system. More than this there are doctors who just do anythings for the sake of money. In India, there are several stories surfacing out that the unwanted surgeries are carried out to remove the fresh organ like kidney from the healthy patients to be sold into black market for organ transplant. Similarly, illegal sex selection abortion is in practice due to the unethical practice by medical professionals.This has twisted the sex ratio (male to female ratio) that in many parts of India there are problems of being bachelor due to the lack of girls. These are very bad practice done by the doctors and their partners for the sake of money. This should be punished with the maximum penalty with de-registration of medical license of doctors for lifetime affect.

In countries like South Korea, where preference for boy is still strong, to ward off the unnecessary abortion government introduced ban on doctors to reveal sex of fetus and other social and economic measure to lift the girls status. Those doctors who violate this will be stripped of license and this has very good impact on overall sex ratio of country. Another idea is to put the medical malpractice into check by lawsuit and legal punishment. According to University of Pennsylvania law professor Tom Bakert, USA has  an epidemic of medical malpractice and very few lawsuits. Laws are made to protect the  needy and weaker section of society. If people have little faith on the system, there will be situation where people will take law into hand and do whatever s/he finds good which is not good for anyone in broader perspective. In my opinion concerted efforts from all concerned can save life property and stress associated with medical mistakes/malpractice around the world. Education and responsible global citizen can avoid the tragedy associated with medical mistakes/practice.