Our Learning curve

In my internship days, I had to look after a ward full of old men who’d come for a cataract camp. Due to the overflow, the operations were spread out over a week. On this particular morning, I woke up late and rushed through the rounds as fast as I could as I had to go the operation theatre after that. Many of the old men were angry and pissed because their operations weren’t being done on the first day itself. I didn’t have time to deal with these tantrums and blankly ignored them as I filled the notes and left.

3 hours later, I returned from the operation theatre to the ward. I had heard the news before I arrived. The old man in Bed no 608 had got fed up of his life without sight and being dependant on everyone for his needs and jumped off the 6^th floor of the hospital.

Since that day in 2005, I’ve never been late for rounds a single day of my life. I’ve never let time again become an issue when dealing with a patient’s personal problems.'

The moral of the story is, I learned from my mistakes.

The siege in Mumbai is over. When the blood dries and the smoke dies down, the fact will remain etched in history – we lost this battle. We couldn’t anticipate the attack. We couldn’t protect our people. We couldn’t save the hostages. It took us 59 hours to end it. And , all credit to them, our soldiers did the best they could. They just weren't prepared for something of this level. We, as viewers, could do nothing but watch with growing frustration and helplessness as this tragedy reached it's gruesome climax.  

Now, it is time to learn.

It is time to stop saying Mee Marathi and all that balderdash and stand up and say ‘I’m an Indian’ first like the NSG forces that came from all over the country to fight for you while the vada-pav chomping local fanatics slinked away and hid behind closed doors. Let’s first become a country before we become a state.

It is time to ignore the barbs which will come shortly from the political parties, blaming one religion over the other and asking for ‘cleansing the nation.’ The nation is clean, except for a few anti-social elements. Unfortunately, they are called politicians and wield Godly control over the local crowd. In their words lie the venom that will turn friends to foes and breed more hatred, insecurity and eventually, local terrorists who will betray us. Let every Indian enjoy his rights – let there be no first among equals here. This is a slippery slope we’re crossing right now – we need to hold onto each other to get through it.

It is time for the government to wake up from the revolver era and equip our policemen and security forces with better ammo and training. Like it or not, we are at war here. And it ain’t over. The next bunch of crazed teenagers with Ak-47s and almonds will be coming shortly. We couldn’t welcome them properly this week. Let’s be in a better position to welcome them at the shipping dock or airport next them they touch our soil.

It is time to let the terrorists know where we stand. The rains will drain away the river of blood. The shoulders will share the tears of abandoned spouses and orphaned children. But we’re still gonna be standing tall, even in this moment of horror. There are a billion more where we came from. It’s gonna take a lot more gun totting cowards to kill us all. Maybe a whole nation of you petty minded weasels. And the sad part is, we know your gameplan now. And we’ll be ready to play the same game next time. No more negotiations. Just the way you want it.

And as a doctor who’s sworn the Hippocratic Oath, loves puppies, eats strawberry icecream, reads Danielle Steele once in a blue moon, enjoys Sex & the City and thinks Winnie Cooper from Wonder Years was the ideal girlfriend, let me with this soft heart of mine make this request on behalf of many more softies all around India to the government –

Flay the skins off the bones of the terrorists you’ve caught alive. Make it slow. Keep them alive while you do it. Tape it all. Release it on live broadcast and the Internet so that their friends all over the world at their hidden training camps can watch what’s it gonna be like when we catch them.

We’re not answerable to anybody. Not today. Not after this.

Maybe that’ll clear any doubts they have on how the Lord chooses to treat them before he greets them.

Above all, let’s be prepared. Let’s be united.

This was a learning curve, a pretty damn big one. Let's actually learn from it, for a change.