Why are those perfectly sweet tasting pills actually bitter?

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Last you read, I prepared you with reasons why it is important to stay ahead in the race of - smart bacteria that can kill you Vs new antibiotics to save you. So, just how to save the precious antibiotic reserve? SCENARIO 1 Each time you feel sick, have a sore throat or fever...it basically means that some germs have raided your body. You are down with some infection. It could be viral or it could be bacterial. Sore throat is a viral infection. Common cold is also caused by a virus. Fever, remember is always only a symptom. Not the problem itself. Dengue fever is caused by a virus. Malaria is caused by a parasite, so it is neither a bacteria nor a virus. Now what do most of us do? Unless we have an exceptionally handsome-looking GP or sweetheart lady to listen to all your....

Why humans aren't really the only smart race

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So we as humans think we are the smartest race. Well, we are. I don't disagree. Just look at the planes and cars and electricity and music and movies...the list can go on...I will leave that to you to be proud of whatever you want to be proud of.. but just when that list would begins to wane.. we step into the puddle.. We humans are smart...but we aren't the only smart ones. And no, I am not talking about aliens striking us down from the sky, rendering us incapable...! Instead, please crane your neck down and look carefully into the puddle you just stepped in. Zoom in please, into the world of microbes. Let me first give you a perspective on their history. Have you ever wondered about extinct races? Dinosaurs and a-lot-of-other-saurs that could trample you down and were capable of chewing your bones to....

The resistant gene

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So when a national newspaper broke this story on how water in New Delhi was contaminated with a superbug, of course it sounded like something that could kill you. It was headline-grabbing stuff but after some frantic phone calls, I found out the truth. No, you won't fall sick just by drinking the Delhi water. It was safe enough. At least, as safe as it has been all this while. But then, most of you didn't know that. You were still getting ready for work, grabbing your morning grub and must have been bloody worried when you saw that headline in the newspaper. I understand. So on a mission to help worried souls like you, at 3 in the afternoon, I found myself thrusting the microphone under the chins of two individuals having awesome credentials, just back in India (stop looking so hassled! Lemme make it simpler....

What rape victims need: an open letter to the medical community

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The brutal gangrape and death of a 23-year-old paramedics student in New Delhi has left India enraged and shocked and a dialogue on reforms in rape laws has set in. But a crucial need for reform also lies within the medical community, an onus waiting to be taken up. For most of us, rape is unimaginable. We cringe at the idea of it. Off and on, when newspapers report of it, we feel sad, enraged, helpless, not necessarily in that particular order. We discuss it with colleagues and friends, over lunch or coffee, recount our 'scary' moments from the past, that feeling of being stalked, and then we move on. Away. But unfortunately, for a victim of rape, there is no moving on from it. There is no wishing it away. I am afraid, never. In India, more than 23,000 rape cases were registered in 2011, but....

A plea for sanity…

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"I don't want this bill..." she said, sitting in the garden at the Women's Press Club. "If the health ministry means it when it says that we are like any other patients, then just treat us like one. Make more dispensaries, physicians...and let us walk in and walk out with the medicines...as simple as that," she quoted. Bhargavi Davar does not look 50. I told her again as I left the place. And she definitely did not look like a mental health patient to me either. And that's the point of it all, I thought, as I made my way back to work after the rather quick interview session. NO - you will NOT find them roaming in the streets, so don't look for it - said her unspoken resolve. We may not realise, or to be honest, admit it, even if it stared us right into....

Cheap drugs or just cheap tricks?

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I still remember meeting a young man of 26 who ate only once a day, to save money to pay for his mother's cancer drugs. And for me... that's what the new pharma pricing policy is all about. Given a country full of bursting cancer wards, TB, HIV/AIDS... and more poor people than we can afford...lets get this clear - no amount of charity is going to save us. But a policy in the right direction is a different matter. For the past 5 years, a group of ministers headed by Mr Pawar have been rethinking the whole concept of how much lifesaving drugs should or should not cost. After a Supreme Court deadline this year, at least some ideas saw the light of the day... The proposed pharma pricing policy, has expanded the National Essential Medicines List from only 74 drugs (all these years) to 348....

When we're hungry... love will...

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It's about a woman called Sita and this is her story! "Meri bachi ko bachpan mein tv nahi dekhne ko milta tha...par aaj meri bacchi tv pe aa rahi hai.." Her eyes were wet. I went and sat on the arm of the sofa that she was sitting on edgily, my hand rubbing her back. I knew that it wouldn't help. Mothers, you know the way they feel, get overwhelmed and all. It may have looked like I was trying to comfort her. But in reality, I was just sitting as close as possible to feel her love for her daughter. "Jab mera baccha log chota tha na.. to hamare ghar mein tv nahi tha... padosi ke ghar jate the.. Ramayan, Mahabharat ya cartoon dekhne ke liye.. to bhaga dete the... dadi ke ghar jate to TV band kar dete. Aankhon mein aansoon leke....

Remembering Rajesh Khanna: A musical for life!

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My daadi called him the 'eye master'! I mean you don't expect a romantic streak in someone you've always known to be old.. but just you mention Rajesh Khanna...and just you see that special smile on daadi's face and that expression.. 'eye master, eye master hai vo', as she always puts it. Dadaji didn't stand a chance. And that's the first thing that crosses my mind as I sit today in the newsroom amidst colleagues running around, breaking the news that superstar Rajesh Khanna is no more. And as I steal time to blog, somehow, I feel a great loss on the inside...and I feel I have to let it out. Hardly surprising since we, I mean people like me, the 90's generation, literally grew up on this guy. Come to think of it...most Sunday mornings in my life, I've woken up to my chachu singing a....

Govt finances tobacco majors, admits to double interests

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There's some satisfaction in saying the truth out loud. I realised this the day after I filed this report. In one simple line, this is the story - the government has huge investments in the tobacco companies. And I mean, huge. When I first stumbled upon the documents over a cup of coffee at Barista, I kept counting the number of zeros just to be sure - nearly a hundred crores of shares. We had accessed an RTI proof that showed that Life Insurance Corporation of India had invested in companies like ITC, VST Industries and the DS group. These are big companies that depend primarily on tobacco for profits. When I saw the figures, let's just say my coffee didn't interest me any longer. A little more digging up and... there was more to dig. ITC's own shareholder report of 2011 showed that six....

What's common Between SRK's daughter and Madonna?

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Any guesses? Well... Recently, Shahrukh Khan got a summon from the Jaipur high court for smoking in public at an IPL match. Déjà vu, ain't it? Can't help but remember that a few years ago, how he was told that smoking was uncool by the then Union health minister Ramadoss, when he was 'caught in the act', again at an IPL match. And just this February, when an HT survey called him one of the top role models in the country, it was a little girl who asked 'the most sensible question'. None other than SRK's own daughter. "How can you be the HT survey youth role model if you smoke?" Shahrukh himself tweeted, as his dotty saying. He was apparently reprimanded by the lil' one who wants him to quit smoking. While one may get awed by the superstar status, I'm rather....