Author: rjoshimgims

Here come the Portuguese It was 1498 when Vasco-da-Gama set sailing around Africa, and reached Southern part of India by sea. By this time, Portuguese or its agents had set-up small island colonies en-route. By 1510 they had colonized lands in Goa, Mozambique, Muscat, Angola. Soon the empire would also spread from Brazil in South… Continue reading Portuguese were the first to begin health-care colonialism

While healing itself is an art, many consider faith-healing as quite farther away from science. While disease is more ancient as compared to its cure, faith-healing may well be a precursor to more established health systems. Early healers were priests and philosophers. They were a link between mortals beings and the divine. Since healers also… Continue reading Faith-healers who cure by calling spirits, and emotions

Adolf Hitler killed himself on 30th April 1945, and over next two days German garrison in Berlin had surrendered. Soviet army from the east, south and north moved in to occupy Berlin. For next two months, Soviets were the sole occupants, and in July the city was divided into four zones. Eastern half remained with… Continue reading Berlin doctors soon after second world war was over

We all have 23 pairs of chromosomes in all the cells of our body. However, some special children are born with an extra one. Those who have one additional 21st Chromosome (three instead of usual two) have Down’s Syndrome. About nineteen years ago, 21st day of March (or 3/21) was selected as a World Down… Continue reading A calendar date that defines an anomaly at birth

Fever is a common symptom of an illness. It is a perception of warmth, often coupled with a mix of feeling cold, shaking and an urge to cover oneself with a blanket. As fever leaves our body, sweat takes over, leaving us drenched and weak. Doctors started giving fever a number only in later half… Continue reading Thermometer: Need to give fever a number on a scale

Gender based violence (GBV) is a broader term, which actually implies “violence against women.” Its definition (as per UN declaration, 1993) is broad, and it refers to “…any violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary… Continue reading Gender based violence exists, but is quite often ignored

India, like many other countries in the world is a patriarchal society. This traditional system prefers a male child, who is believed to carry forward the family name. This deeply rooted preference often puts girl-child at a disadvantage. Coupled with patriarchy, child marriages (that led to lower education levels in girls, and expectation to raise… Continue reading Girl Child and movement for its rights in India

Prostaglandins are a substances, that are produced by many cells in our body. While they mostly have a local action, a list of tasks they perform is long and complex. They alert us by causing pain and fever, whenever our organs encounter injurious signals. Prostaglandins also help to pause a bleed, form a clot, and… Continue reading Prostaglandins: Substances with too much on their plate

We usually visualize nurses to be in a white attire, but more recently the colors are often blue, green or mauve. On the other hand Khaki (a brownish yellow color) belongs to military, police or law enforcing forces. So indeed, Nurses in Khaki are serving military personnel. It is indeed an irony that nursing profession… Continue reading Nurses in Khaki, and how it all began

None of the 30 trillion cells that make up the human body, can be seen with a naked eye. Most of these tiny cells, have an even tinier energy producing “organelles”. These are our “mitochondria”. Cells that forms the heart muscle, have about 8000 of these in each cell, while cells in our other muscles… Continue reading Mighty but tiny energy houses in our cells -mitochondria