Author: akshay
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Annihilation of Caste
Jat-Pat Todak Mandal probably wanted to be the #DalitLivesMatter of their time. That’s how they invited Ambedkar to their annual conference in 1936 to deliver a speech. Organization of conferences in that time and today have at least one thing in common – communication gaps. JPTM wanted Ambedkar to talk about abolition of caste. Like…
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How Can I Be Useful For You?
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. I haven’t still figured out how to execute this. But here’s the idea. I’m very privileged, purely by the accident of birth. There are millions of people less privileged than me in many ways. I think the right use of my privileges would be to help…
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Why Wikipedia Is Evil
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of many things about Wikipedia. I have a small number of edits on Wikipedia too. But, I think democratizing knowledge creation is more important than Wikipedia. And that’s why the title. I have written with examples about how Wikipedia’s claims about it being “the sum of all human…
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Liberty vs Morality
Liberty and morality can be seen as counter-balancing forces. Liberty applies to individuals. Morality is a social construct. Liberty is about what one can do. Morality is about what one cannot do. Liberty assumes each human is a rational being and respects them for that. Morality is enforced on humans by authority based on arbitrary…
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Public Lives of Doctors?
Social media has made our private life public. Facebook, Instagram, even WhatsApp (through stories) thrive on users generating engaging content. Often this content is snaps from daily life. A picture is worth a thousand words, yet can be generated in a second. Image centered social media platforms rely on this to keep themselves going. What…
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The Connection Between Curiosity and Knowledge
Last week, 7½ years after Aaron Swartz death, I was thinking about what made Aaron smart. There is this quote: “Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.” Curiosity. It keeps popping up here and there. I was read Anand Philip‘s blog today. The “about” page is…
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What to Make of Itolizumab?
It is the worst of times. Science is suffering an identity crisis. The world is in dire need of science. Science isn’t used to being rushed. “It is a giant and slow churn”, said a friend once, “and spews a breakthrough once in a while”. Is it possible to make the process faster? That’s what…
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Moral Determinants of Health? How is it Different from Social Determinants of Health?
There is a viewpoint in JAMA published under the title: “The Moral Determinants of Health” a couple of weeks ago. I went through it and don’t claim to understand it fully. But because there is a draft I’m working on about health as a fundamental human right, I think I understand what the author was…
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Double Standards – Patanjali vs Glenmark; What is the Point of Ayurveda?
A couple of days back Glenmark made a press release about Favipiravir which made it sound like they have a “game-changer” and “magic bullet” (according to various media houses). This was based on little evidence about its benefit. There is virtually nothing in public domain that shows that Favipiravir is useful in COVID. CDSCO explicitly…
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Public Health Was Always Broken, You Are Just Noticing It Now
There is this nytimes article about how one pregnant lady who was also breathless couldn’t find appropriate care despite going to multiple hospitals. I find it nothing surprising. Our country’s public health system has never been able to provide appropriate care to people with medical emergencies (or for that matter, any health issue). Maybe now…