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Showing posts from August 25, 2013

Learning by listening….

About 40 of our leaders came together to reflect on some of the challenges we face in our interaction with the legal systems of the country, the government offices and officers and the media. We had senior Government secretaries, lawyers and Media people listening in and giving us perspectives which health care professionals normally do not get. And there was a theologian who gave us biblical frame work to look at state and how to interact with state. As I listened in to all the sessions and interaction going on, I learnt a few things about our fraternity…. or  at least about myself…. One – Health care professionals are illiterate! Though literate in our own field, we tend not to enhance our literacy in the other fields which we necessarily need to, if we have to survive in the world of health care. Two – There are other professionals who are like us, who confuse the lay with their jargon! Like what we do with the Medical jargon! Lawyers are not too far behind. Government

Vulnerability test

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After the last post on vulnerability which was written from a train journey to UP, I got out of the train and immediately faced a test of vulnerability. A personal test from which I am still recovering! I lost my purse with – all the ID cards, Debit and Credit Cards, License to Drive and a couple of frequent traveller cards. In one sense – Plastic cards which gives you Identity, Security, Mobility and Status. The immediate reaction was acute sense of vulnerability. I need to travel soon – I do not have a ID proof; I am not “old fashioned” to keep too much cash with me – and I need money (my wife’s card also is blocked for some reason); weekend approaching, I need to drive; and of course  some of the other plastics which I can afford to lose. Status can always come later…! If I has put my emotions on a graph it would have looked like this. (Fig 1) Soon, in about 24 hours the same changed! There did not seem to be much relationship between what I possessed and what I felt!