Pankaj Desai's Blogs

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...

Scenario:             Mrs. A walks into the hospital with pregnancy 8 months, raised B.P. and her unborn child, she has been told by her attending obstetrician, is sick. We examine her and find that she indeed has a very high B.P. This process has affected her kidneys to some extent and her unborn child is actually dead. There is no heart sounds coming from the fetus. We perform a sonography and inform the pregnant woman and her family of the situation. We also inform them of the need for early delivery now that the fetus is dead within. They agree. Labour is induced and in due course of time she has a still born delivery. After nearly a week to ten days her high B.P. and associated sicknesses get cured and it is time to discharge the subject.                       This is the time when the parents of the patient walk into our chamber a...

HEALTH VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN      I got an idea to create this write-up on an area where I see violence against women. It is not necessary to overstress the fact that violence need not only be physical. It can be mental, emotional, and sexual and now I wish to introduce this concept of health violence. Health Violence: What is that?      Our traditional perception of violence is use of force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing. For us violence is usually physical, mental or emotional. However there are other forms of violence also in any given society. I am introducing here a concept of violence not found in traditional paradigms. It is the concept of health violence. Briefly, it can be any act on the part of the society in general and family members and “friends” in particular which can violate health of a human being is health violence. In reference to health violence against women, this seems to be very big challenge to t...