Can you tell me where is Bangalore?

Flight from Bangalore to Buffalo lands at Baghdad...

Bangalore....

I last heard that name in President Barrack Obama's speech where he wanted American kids to be more serious with their studies so that certain kind of jobs are not outsourced to Bangalore or Beijing....

I hope now the reader understands which Bangalore I am trying to recall.

Some people have renamed it as Bangaluru, its original name. However a change of name can not change the character of a city. Can it?

A muslim girl lives in Bangalore. She was interviewed in a college for admission to a graduate programme. She wore a burqua to her interview. The Principal of the college was present there.

Now after her admission some fundamentalists wanted her first to stop wearing her burqua and then even the scarf over her head. When she did not, the Principal, unable to withstand the wrath of fundamentalists asked her to stop coming to college. That was his wisdom. The Vice Chancellor of the University finds this to be a disciplinary issue beyond their control.

Do you still think this is the same Bangalore that was perceived to be a threat to the kids in Buffalo?

Or is this Bangaluru (no offence to those who support any of the names), a place somewhere near Baghdad?

What should one wear is a personal choice in a democracy.

You don't win elections this way: even if you indulge in introspection exercises after debacle. Introspect and also take issues and not non issues! Thou shall win!

MEDICAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY IN INDIA

Few years ago I had heard of an Irish girl seeking the court’s permission to travel to the United Kingdom for terminating her pregnancy following a rape. Here are some case reports of how the issue of abortion is handled in India:

Case I

A mentally challenged woman conceives through rape. A high court in India approves abortion. She has a counsel. (I do not know how she put across her views to the lawyer if she indeed was significantly challenged mentally). They appeal against the verdict citing the victim’s right to maternity. A person who doesn’t have any biological relative should be allowed to have one, the lawyer argued.

The Supreme Court allowed the woman to maintain her pregnancy. I am not sure if she understands the consequences.

Case II

A couple sought the intervention of the court in Mumbai when they learnt their unborn child may have congenital cardiac abnormalities. The court turns down the appeal as the pregnancy is at a rather advanced stage & the likelihood of congenital defects only a possibility that is not established beyond doubt.

The couple is dejected but later has a “spontaneous abortion”.

Case III

A Pediatric intensivist from Delhi’s Escort’s heart institute & research centre (EHIRC) informally shares with me a case of a Gynecologist who went ahead with medical termination of a very advanced (8 months’ plus) pregnancy when she learnt the baby (fetus) had a “patent foramen ovale” reported on an ultrasound!

Foramen ovale is a natural passage meant to support the blood circulation in a fetus: it closes spontaneously after birth. A student of anatomy (subject taught in the first year of MBBS) is supposed to know this elementary fact.

No violation of law, since nothing is official about it!

Case IV

In my own town a prominent clinic resorted to MTP after a triple test (read about the ambiguity of the test in special circumstances in my comments) suggested a possibility of Down’s syndrome. Incidentally, the woman had been treated with certain hormonal preparations including the human chorionic gonadotriphins for her recurrent fetal loss. Whether this could have skewed the test result was not looked into.

Interestingly, the said MTP was undertaken as the pregnancy was at an advanced age!!

In a suspected case of Down’s syndrome, there are better ways than a triple test to determine the risk: chorionic villi sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis.

But such is never the practice in tier II or III cities in India! I seldom see physicians sending in their patients for such screening or genetic counseling.

Why refer when you can have an abortion in the city is the norm for most.

As father of a child with congenital disease, I feel the law needs to be reviewed.

What do you feel?

Please put across your views.