Wealth In Health

Health is wealth..so the saying goes and with good reason because theres a lot of wealth to be made in health care.

Personally im truly thankful that ive been maintaining good health. In fact I can recollect only one full day that ive been absent from work + another day when I went off a little early because of sickness in almost 3 years since I joined my current workplace.

I recently got hold of Michael Moore’s documentary film called Sicko [released back in 2002]. It’s a must watch in case you have not yet seen it. This film focuses on the health system in the USA. “Moore pulls the curtain back on the greedy HMOs, drug companies and congressmen who keep us ill…” is whats written on the back of the DVD case and that’s exactly what is in there and more.

After watching a couple of Moore’s documentaries I’ve become a fan of his work. In his films there are absurd scenes and statements and one might think that they were staged or written as scripts but they are all real and true…..and that’s why I came up with the line up there in my fan art – “More than just camera, lights & fiction” to state the kind of films Michael Moore makes.

For instance, the part where he opens an account in a bank and gets a gun for free was hard to believe when I first saw his film Bowling for Columbine but there actually is a bank out there in the USA which has this setup and the scene in the film is not staged. Surf over to read the interesting FACTS pages on his website. Moore’s latest film is called Capitalism – A love story.

Back to the health care or should we say careless industry. Watching Sicko reminded me of something Chris Rock said in one of his stand up comedy shows. It was something on the lines of questioning why we can’t find the cure for so many diseases when man has been able to send men up to the moon. Of course I’m one of those who doubt the authenticity of the man on the moon landings… but this is another story :-)

Long post already but September is a month of birthdays in my family and I guess it’s not too off topic to mention about recognizing birthdays. It’s good to be alive and healthy; to complete another year in one’s life. I dedicate the following song to my daughter, wife and all others out there who love this song and to those who might not yet have heard this song.

Forever Young by Bob Dylan … enjoy and take care.



May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

FUTURE TENSE

How well have you planned for your future?
Or are you one of those who “live each day as it comes…”?



I’d taken this photo a couple of weeks back, near a place where
I go to eat food sometimes.

The red robot with blinking lights standing in attention with headphones plugged into it + its owner [the man in the black shirt] regularly set up shop in their designated location. At first I’d assumed that the robot played music …so I thought it was a robo-juke box playing out the latest hit songs from Bolly/Tollywood films. I was wrong.

Now, look closely at the man with the headphones on. He seems pretty tense. At least not the kind of expression one would have when listening to music. When I approached the owner out of curiosity he immediately spoke out in English….”Future”. So, either the robot was predicting a dark future or the man was concentrating on the words streaming through the headphones. I tried hard not to smile...backed off a little as I took out my camera; the owner nodded his approval and I clicked one shot. The man on the headphones didn’t even notice me all that time. Hope he doesn’t mind.

So off I went with a big smile on my face. I forgot to ask how much one session of future prediction from the robot cost. Back home when I looked at the photo again on my computer I felt a little bad for the man with the headphones. Notice that there a couple of stickers on the robot’s “abdomen”. They are pictures of deities. I’m sure some customer s of the robot listened just for fun or out of curiosity but still I think some others would actually approach and walk away believing in the pre-recorded predictions of the future from the machine.

Of course on a different level we’ve got apps on Facebook like fortune cookies or horoscopes and even Orkut dishes out its words of fortune for it’s users…

I myself have a premonition that I’m gonna die in a plane crash
but that’s another story... :-)

Note: The place where the robot stands is in the Sealdah railway station area here in Kolkata. Sealdah railway station is one of the busiest in India and I bet a lot of people coming from outside the city approach this future predicting robot.