Nature has unique ways of defining the destination of humanbeings. Worldly factors like education, social status or family background doplay a role in one’s career. However despite all this, there is a divine powerthat directs or redirects an individual’s path in life –what some people callluck or destiny.
As a medical doctor, I had the opportunity to study humanbehavior in different countries including Kashmir, India, the United States andalso Saudi Arabia, where I had to deal with different nationalities coming towork from all over the globe. My keen observations have led me to comprehendthat humans across the world have the same desires, needs, ambitions and flaws–no matter how much their lifestyles may differ.
In 1965, the drums of war were beating between India andPakistan, and I was deputed to a maternity hospital in Delhi. It is here were Ihad to do my required training in midwifery. At that phase in life, you areambitious, and eager to gain knowledge of more than what one is expected tolearn. My peers and I were to be trained under the guidance of highly reputedIndian gynecologists, and the nursing staff from the South was par excellence.Naturally, this small hospital—with just a 50 patient bed capacity—had built agreat reputation across New Delhi and people from all walks of life would comein day and night to be treated. After a delivery, the mother and the newbornwould go home within a couple of days unless otherwise required.
Within a few days of my stay there, I found nurses takingcare of a newborn even when the mother was not around. I also noticed a youngsophisticatedly dressed and visibly disturbed gentleman who would comeregularly to cuddle the baby. Myinquisitives nature led me to the facts that the baby was the objet d’artof amisadventure between the visiting gentleman and his maid. Despite the fact thatthe visitor looked like a polished gentleman he was visibly depressed andworried about the future of his genes. Here I was reminded of a story by theFrench author Guy De Maupassant which I had read while I was a student atDegree College, Anantnag.
OB/Gynecology was my favorite branch of medical science. Istarted my residency in this field at SMGS Hospital, Jammu in 1967. The wintercapital Jammu has an umbilical bond between Dogri and Kashmiri culture. It is acity that always resounds with melodious bells from its temples and itsdevotees chanting mantras from the Vedasand Bhagawad Gita. The city is alsoknown for its delicious sweet shops.
During my residency in Jammu, I remember a young, femaleuniversity student who was brought unconscious to the hospital. She hadconsumed a deadly substance, which shortened her precious life. She passed awaywithin half an hour of being brought in, to the shock of her respectableparents who were attending to her. Ignorant of the consequences, a colleaguehelped to skip the necessary postmortem otherwise important for a medico legalcase to ascertain the cause of death. We then found out the lady was threemonths pregnant at the time of her death.
From Jammu, I was transferred to the ER of SMHS hospital inSrinagar. I recall one particularly busy evening, when I was surrounded by halfa dozen well-dressed ladies, and a gentleman was reciting holy words on arosary in his right hand. At the time, I was examining a teenager withabdominal cramps. With the limited expertise that I had picked up while workingin midwifery at SMGS Jammu, I had to call a senior female colleague to clear mydoubts that despite being unmarried my patient was carrying a few monthspregnancy. It was an ordeal to resuscitate the police officer father who washymning on the rosary beads—seemingly ignorant to what was just revealed.
My reckless political activities resulted in my transfer tothe tiny District Hospital, Anantnag at Shairbag, which currently accommodatesa child and maternity hospital. One fine morning in 1970, a team of vibrantyoung female doctors at the hospital was shocked to help a widow out of herunwanted pregnancy and it had been the head man (Mukdam) of the village who hadlured the destitute in to that awkward situation.
While basking in the summer sun of Pahalgam in the lawns ofa small dispensary, I was approached by an American tourist couple. The blondewoman, suspecting a pregnancy, asked for a medical checkup. These were the daysof hippie culture in the Western countries. To my surprise, she suddenly burstinto tears, wanting to get rid of her unwanted baby because her parents werestrict Catholics and the boy—the would-be father—was a Protestant.
Towards the end of 1983, my destiny in search of respectablebread and butter sent me from the lush greens of Pahalgam, Kashmir into thedeserts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Working in a completely alien atmospherewas a novel experience. Despite the fact there was separation between gendersmandated by law, the attraction between the sexes was evident. During one of myadministrative morning rounds I was asked by an ER doctor there to confirm apregnancy. This time again, it was of an unmarried teenager who was driven tothe hospital by a Bangladeshi driver.
Having shared snippets of my experience, what I intend tohighlight here is that we are all humans irrespective of color, cast, creed orrace. And as humans, we are susceptible to evil.
Recently security forces have tightened their noose onreligious Babas and their Ashrams. Officials found incriminating evidence thatthese places of otherwise religious activities are being used as clandestinesexual dens. Similar activities were reported in churches in the US and otherWestern countries, and priests holding the highest offices were accused ofshameful acts.
The need is to focus on moral education to curb the increasein sexual assaults, gang rapes and women trafficking in the country.