Pankaj Desai's Blogs

Fire station at Dandia Bazaar Opp. my home As a member of our national fraternity organization, I was once confronted by a very strange request. A typical tight upper-lip gentleman gynecologist from one of the four huge metro cities of India walked up to me and said: “Can’t you rephrase your postal address? Dandia Bazaar – what an address!” Well my postal address is indeed “Guru-Krupa”, Opp. Alankar Apartments; Dandia Bazaar…   I was amused. I asked him: “What is wrong with Dandia Bazaar?” Out came his bias “You live in a bazaar? Dandia BAZAAR – so middle-class!” I burst into an uproarious laughter.  The typical tight upper-lip snob Some years ago I was told by a gynecologist friend: Do you know – one of our federation office-bearer who is always so proud of having studied in UK for three years (forgetting he studied in India for twenty five years preceding) and wears bow-ties (probably even while sleeping) to look so upper-crust British told me – “How you ca...

The other day I went for a haircut. Seated on the chair next to mine was a child of about four years and hovering around him was his mother. I was amused to see her continuously instructing the hairstylist as to how to cut and with what instruments. Just as the stylist moved she would move around the head of the child, supervising each and every strand of the hair getting styled. I could obviously feel the discomfiture of the stylist who was struggling to balance his work with the incessant instructions of the mother. Little did I realize that the child too was getting uncomfortable till he loudly shouted: “Mama you please go”! A hush fell in the salon but the mother – a cool cucumber just asserted “You don’t understand anything. You just keep quiet and let me do my work!” The child was obviously bullied to silence. That was a helicopter parent in full regalia - a classic example  of  what Time magazine once described as "Over Parenting" This incident reminde...

I remember as a resident doctor doing post-graduation in obstetrics and gynecology there was this lady senior consultant of ours who always had her anger on the tip of her nose.  We all used to be terrified of her and many would run helter-skelter on seeing her.  Once while I was doing some post-operative routine work in the wards I heard a big commotion near the operation theater door. She was shouting at the top of her voice. Inquisitively, I went closer to find an old man standing in front of her trembling and with folded hands as if pleading for mercy. She was blasting him. It seems she on coming out of the operation theater on finishing some difficult surgery saw something unsavory.  There were beedi ( a thin, Indian cigarette filled with tobacco flake and wrapped in a tendu leaf tied with a string at one end ) stubs littered all around plump near the door of the Operation Theater. I did not need a minute to understand what must have happened. The man must b...

ACADEMIC THIEVES:                 I just happened to see an article published recently in one scientific journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology which shocked me. I suddenly realised this is robbery! The author of the said paper had nothing to do with that research work. I remember when I was in medical college that I had arranged for this entire project in joint collaboration of some other department of basic sciences for carrying out this research. My team under my active guidance prepared the entire research protocol and was working on this project. It was related to oxidative stress in some challenging condition. Amidst I took a voluntary retirement and so the project was then after guided by the person who was second in command then. She became the guide of the postgraduate student and this entire project was completed. The student passed her post-graduation degree exam. Amid...

In India there is indeed a mammoth problem of prenatal sex determination and elimination of unborn female fetuses.  This menace is being tackled in many ways including stringent laws, social interventions in the form of awareness creating TV programmes, religious leaders fervently appealing people not to indulge into these activities and so on. But all these have met with limited success. Cynics have gone to the extent of prophesying that till the time that the monsters of dowry and inferior status of women in Indian society continues to be live, nothing can change this picture. However I was pleasantly surprised to see a beautiful change. It is possible that this might be just one sparrow and not really heralding the summer. But it was very real and heart-warming. I just returned from a trip abroad. During this trip I could closely watch three families from India travelling as co-tourists. All of them were from very orthodox and conservative families of Nort...

I knew this was going to happen. I dreaded it for years. I had seen similar situations and always wondered why people cry on such occasions – but had no rational explanation ever forthcoming. But do emotions ever have rationality? My fear became more acute when the family decided that we should have a film-like presentation from photographs of her entire life. I am known to handle film-making through Power-Director and Windows Movie Maker well so naturally the choice fell on me. The family looked at me and I couldn't refuse. I told my son you make the broad outline and then I will do the rest. He activated the software and prepared the framework. I was sure I was going to cry so I told him “Now you leave the room. Close the door behind and leave me alone. Do not call for me under any circumstances”. It was 15 th  December 2011 – three days before 18 th  December – the day my daughter was going to get married. I sat down on the desk and collected al...

Introduction Literally menopause is a word derived from two Greek words men-month and pause meaning stop. To a lay man the word menopause means cessation of menstruation. However, menopause is an event in the series of changes that take place in women wherein the ovarian function gradually ceases and begins to withdraw. This entire phase is known as climacteric of which menopause is an event.  If one is to compare climacteric to a ladder, menopause is just a rung of that ladder. Basically, menopause is an event. It results from the depletion the stock of ovarian follicles (which form  ova subsequently) and a resultant fall in estrogen progesterone hormone levels. Natural Menopause  Menopause is a natural event in a woman's life that designates the end of fertility, or her childbearing years. Menopause results from the ovaries decreasing their production of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. Most women can tell if they are approaching menopaus...

Human beings always intrigue me as much as they fascinate me. We have been taught from our childhood to be ideal – ideal child, ideal student, ideal professional, ideal husband, ideal father, ideal son, ideal brother- so many varied roles we play throughout our life and in all of these we have our defined precincts. We operate within these and try to be ideal.  In many of my talks I say “ Try for excellence, perfection is God’s business ”. This entire excellence is programming us to reach the bookmarks of IDEAL in whatever role we play. But then what is ideal is never perfect. This wonderful depth gets unveiled in a recently viewed academy award winning Hollywood film - The Black Swan. I salute the makers of this film and the entire cast who have churned out a masterpiece.              In the film there is a story of a ballerina who portrays the white swan so easily. But the challenge comes when she has also to p...