Dr. Anil Kumar Agarwal

Recently a minister was slapped by a Sikh youth of Delhi while the minister was attending a function in the capital of India. The youth was agitated and saying that the minister was responsible for inflation of prices of eatables. The event went on air live. Every politician was condemning the act of the youth and blaming each other on this issue. Some politicians were trying to politicize this issue.

In the beginning Anna Hazare had also asked people about this incidence and said the act was correct by using such words that even an ordinary person can understand his words. But realizing the gravity of his comments he immediately condemned his statement himself by saying that the act of the youth was unlawful. He tried to save his image by saying like that. The supporters and workers of the minister’s political party had demonstrated against this act on the road and jammed the traffic in Maharashtra. His supporters even went to the village of Anna Hazare, a social activist.

When workers of any political party demonstrate on the roads that cause so many problems to the public who is not at all on the fault, does it not seem as if they are slapping public indirectly? If the workers wanted to show their annoyance they should grab only the place of the concerned man or authority.

People in the society say that the youth’s act was correct. Then why our political leaders condemn it. The media must show honestly the public comments too on such sensitive issues without disclosing their identity.

PCOD and DEPRESSION

A lady Mrs. MG came to my office in the morning for her some ailments many weeks ago. She explained her problems that were the mixture of physical and mental sufferings. At the physical level she was not getting her menstrual cycle and on mental sphere was very depressed. After examining her and seeing her laboratory reports I concluded her case and diagnosed it as PCOD. The full name of this abbreviated term is as Poly Cystic Ovarian Disease. She was in a bad shape as suffering from depression. Depression itself is  a very dreaded disease in which the patient may even try to commit suicide when the case is in worsening position.

I noted down her history and findings of ailments as suggested by Dr. Hahnemann in Homeopathy. After analyzing the case she was prescribed the homeopathic medicines. She responded well to the homeopathic medicines as her depression had gone down. She started her daily work as she did it previously. So she was not getting much trouble at the emotional level now and it was the big achievement for the patient. But still she was suffering from Acne on the face, Obesity and Amenorrhea (absence of menses).

She wanted me a favor on the menses part as she felt uneasiness due to the absence of menses. She was very keen for appearing of the menses. When she was taking allopathic hormonal medicines she got the menses every month. On the same pattern she wanted to get her ailment eradicated in Homeopathy too. Then I gave her some information how Homeopathy works. And at that time she shared her thought that she got from her sister-in-law. She said, ‘My sister-in-law who is an allopathy doctor told me that in Homeopathy, Only steroids are used in the name of treatment. So you better stop taking Homeopathic medicines and again switch over to allopathy. Now you tell me what to do in this situation.’ It was a shocking news to me.

I couldn’t get one thing why the lady doctor cum her sister-in-law misguided her. There are so many options in this lady doctor’s case. First, the lady doctor doesn’t like the patient; it may be either due to some old grudges or just out of some jealousy that is beyond the preview of this writing. Second, she -doctor might have felt humiliated that the patient had got relief in her suffering from other system of medicines; it really happens with some doctors as I also know such a few of them. Third, the doctor knows nothing about the other system of medicines but some bad rumors; it is also a shameful act for a doctor who maligns the piousness of other system of medicines as all the system of medicines are meant  for patients. And millions of patients are being benefitted by different systems of medicines though every system of medicines has its own limitations. In my view it is a crime as well as a social offence, if anybody tries to misguide any patient.

To assure Mrs. MG I showed her homeopathic materia medica in which description of homeopathic medicines were given. When she read its some pages and found that raw materials used in Homeopathy don’t belong to any type of steroids rather most of them were prepared from herbs. She was satisfied with her treatment of PCOD as getting relief under the Homeopathy.

Nainital is a famous hill station. Even it is called queen of hills; this shows itself that it is really very charming place and worth to go there in summer season. If you enjoy winter you can go there at the end of winter. This time there is no crowd and enjoyment will be of different type. I have been there twice and once just crossed near Nainital when I went to Jageshwar temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.

First time I went to Nainital when Sambhav was only 8-9 months old; even he walked his first step there so this trip is more memorable than others. Vaibhav was about three years old. Whenever we went to the bazaar he demanded some thing from every shop. His mom asked him to decide what he actually needed. After that he didn’t demand anything as if he had understood his mom’s advice. He was fond of shooting at balloons so on every such shop he played the game. His style of shooting at the balloon and standing at the time of act looked quite attractive so we also enjoyed his actions.

In the middle of Nainital there is a lake; actually the name of this lake is Naini and on its name the area is called Nainital. There are seven lakes in that hill; they are called by the name of different Tal like Bheemtal etc…

On the first day there I bought six bananas in the evening while we were going back to his hotel. In the late night I demanded the hotel to serve me a glass of milk for Sambhav. The waiter served milk in my room but the ratio of water was quite high in the milk but we had no other choice except to accept it. This water mixed milk was digested earlier than the required time so Sambhav got up at midnight and began to cry. The bananas had helped him to satisfy his hunger.

One day we went for boat riding in the lake. Sambhav was in a mood to put his extremities in to the water but he was so small that we couldn’t leave him alone in the boat. In the end I told the boat man to take the boat at the bank of the lake. Sambhav kept his one hand into the water till we left the boat.

Second time when we went to Nainital we got different experience. This time Sambhav was in such age that he could go to nearby market alone. Our hotel was at Mall Road; the road is not very long so even a guy can walk on foot from one end to another. Talital and Malital are the name of the ends respectively. Sambhav had enjoyed a lot by going alone from one end to another two-three times every day till we were there.

One day we went to see the zoo. Inside the zoo, there was lion cage where a lion was walking continuously. We felt a different type of experience by watching him. While we were returning from the zoo, on the way a herd of monkeys crossed the road by jumping from trees to trees. A leg of one monkey touched Vaibhav’s head but he didn’t show any panicky.

For going to Nainital; a train goes from Delhi to Kathgodam which is the nearest railway station for Nainital. Taxis and buses are available to go from Kathgodam to Nainital. The distance is about forty kilometers.

In the month of February, 1984, I married Mira. The very next day my friends asked me where you were going for honeymoon. I said, ‘Why did you not advise me for that some days ago? ’ They told me that every thing could be arranged easily even that day too and my part was just to pack my bag. Within an hour, the two train tickets of Moussorrie Express were in my hand. To get the train ticket on the same day was quite difficult in those days though the condition is more or less the same even today. Getting the tickets I was glad.

I told Mira that we were going to Moussori on that day so she should kindly pack her bag. She asked me to pack my bag too. I advised her to just pack her bag only and I would manage my bag myself. She felt some difficulty in doing so as there were a lot of guests at home at that time. I tried to tell her some thing but she got slightly annoyed with my behaviour as it might not be according to her emotional comfort level. Today I may understand her annoyance at that time only up to some extent but not completely.

Any how we were ready to go to Mussorie and my as well her family members were happy on our decision. They finished all the rituals by evening and still we had sufficient time to board the train. So we thought to take rest and lay down but we went in to deep sleep as we couldn’t sleep the previous night, that was the wedding night and all the wedding ceremonies were performed on that night. My sister alerted me to get up. Getting up I saw my watch and found that we were short of time. Hurriedly we took up our bags and went to the railway station. When we reached the platform I found that the train was there. I felt as if the train was waiting for me.

Next day we were in the Mussorie and we chose a beautiful room in one hotel. The name of the hotel is not in my memory at the moment. We enjoyed three four days there. Every day we went to some new spot like Kempty-fall, Lal-Tiba, and the company-garden etc. Mussorie is a small hill station but beautiful. It is quite near Delhi so that it is famous among residents of Delhi.

A friend of mine was posted there. He came to see me on the day I reached Mussorie as I had phoned him. He invited me to come to his house on dinner. I accepted his invitation so he came again in the evening to take us to his house where his wife welcomed us. We had dinner there that was very delicious as his wife was quite expert in cooking.

One day I got annoyed with Mira in Mussorie now I feel that it might be my immaturity. We came back home after spending three-four days. Still some sweet memories are in my mind that is beyond my capability to explain in words.

One fine day we planned to go to Haridwar so I bought three train tickets from Old Delhi Railway Station. That time the tickets were made manually so it was in the hand of the man who was sitting on the booking window, whether he would sell you ticket or not. When I demanded him three tickets for Haridwar he refused me by saying that the tickets had already been sold out. I requested him in such a way as if I was accustomed to the corrupt system so he gave me three tickets. When I gave him money he said OK. I insisted on him to refund the balance amount. First, he stared at me and refunded me the balance.

Reaching home I told Mira about the program. I purchased third ticket for one of my nephews, my elder sister’s son – Pankaj, who was ready to go with us. We boarded the train on the scheduled date that was on Saturday evening. By the following day in the morning we arrived at Haridwar. We took the Rickshaw from the station to go to the Dharamshala that was near the bank of holy river Ganga. Having got the room we went to the ‘Har Ki Podi’ to take a holy dip into it. The flow of water was quite high and the water itself was very cold so it was difficult to enter the water in one shot. First I dipped my one foot into it and after a while second foot. Having accustomed the body to chilled water I put my one hand into the water. Slowly and gradually I wetted my whole body. After this we bathed and enjoyed into the water a lot. It was my first experience to such cold river though I had visited the Ganga at the place called ‘Garh Ganga’ but the water at ‘Garh Ganga was not as chilled as at ‘Har Ki Podi’.

Having taken bath we changed our dresses and went to the nearby restaurant to take a breakfast though my sister had prepared some eatables and packed it for the journey but we left it at home in haste. Having the breakfast we went to see many famous temples of Haridwar. They were all beautiful.

Next day we went to Rishikesh that is also very beautiful and in between the hills. There were so many big Dharamshalas and temples in Rishikesh where many ‘Sadhus’ live and meditate religiously. After spending two-three days we returned to Delhi. When we reached ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminus) the time was 3 am. I hired an auto rickshaw and went home. After dropping us at home, the auto rickshaw driver asked me to say something. Getting my permission he said, ‘Sir, it was not the right time to go home from ISBT, you had better stay there till 5 o’ clock.’ I said to him, ‘Thanks for nice advice and got into home.’

Dubai is a country known for its beauty and shopping at least in India though people from all over the world will be found there as  tourists. I have already visited it twice before getting one more invitation to go there. Naresh who is a big gun in Agarwal community, phoned me to go there as a guest. I told him how I could go there so early as a few months back we were there and asked him the purpose to go there. He tried to explain it on phone but I couldn’t get him so I invited him home or to my office. One day, on Sunday in the afternoon, he phoned me that he was coming to my house. I guided him the route of my house as he was coming there first time. Soon he along with his wife was at my residence. He told me about the invitation that he got from Dubai as a chief guest to attend the celebration of Maharaja Agarsain Jayanti. He wanted me to accompany him. In the end I accepted his offer.

Just after a few days we, four – Naresh, me and two lady workers of Agarwal community, were at Dubai international airport. It was mid-night when we were standing in a queue for immigration. Three of our group got immigration clearance and went out but I was still in the waiting as one VIP passenger went to the counter without bothering about others. At my turn the officer on the counter asked me the name of the hotel where I would stay. I replied him that my group leader who had gone outside knew the name of the hotel. Listening to my reply he advised me to wait in a nearby room, for this he sent an officer with me in the room where a lady-officer was sitting. She asked me so many questions but none of my answer satisfied her as she was quite rude. Then I talked to another officer about my problem. He thoroughly checked my passport and found that I had already visited his country twice. Then he told her something in his mother tongue. The lady allowed me to go after stamping my visa document.

After coming out where my colleagues were waiting for me anxiously, I asked angrily Naresh why he had not given us our itinerary. He gave me unsatisfactory answer; in the middle of the tour I realized that it was his habit of not sharing the information concerned so that I shouldn’t get angry.

Out side the air-port, the hotel driver was standing with a play-card in his hand to receive us. He took us to the hotel car, put our luggage in the trunk and drove away to the hotel, named the Royal. Having got the key of the rooms we went to the room and soon we were in the lap of sound sleep. In the morning we got up fresh and got ready by 10 o’clock. While we were having breakfast one of our hosts came to receive us.

Having reached at the host office we did some formal talk though the formal meeting was fixed on the lunch. When one of our team-mates desired to visit Abu-Dhabi on the same day, the host suggested us to change meeting from lunch to dinner. He told us that he would inform the celebration committee for the change.

The host’s driver took us to Abu-Dhabi where we first visited the hotel, named Emirates Palace. It was really very beautiful inside-outside both. It had four wings – two are reserved exclusively for Sheiks’s of UAE. Rooms in rest of the two wings are available for tourist though these are very costly in terms of dollars. Our luck was in our favor as a gentleman of the palace staff showed us the other part of the hotel too.

After coming out of the Emirate palace we looked for lunch as it was late afternoon and every body was feeling hungry. We got one vegetarian sweet shop after an exhaustive search. We had had some snacks as there was no other option left. On the way back to Dubai we visited the mosque that was very big and extremely beautiful. It has the rule for ladies that they can enter the mosque after wearing ‘Burka’.

We stopped at one more place for half an hour as we were already running short of time because our hosts were waiting for us on dinner cum meeting. The place was called ‘Ferrari world’. We went inside, wandered there without taking any ride and came out after taking some photographs.

We directly went to the Indian restaurant where we had to have dinner and planned the next day program.

Next day we attended the celebration and endorsed our presence. All the people attending the function were happy to see us as we were there just to attend the function. Children of the members presented some cultural program that was fantastic. After the function we went back to the hotel, did some rest and went to see Dubai. We were accompanied by a family who was the relative of one of our members. We came back to hotel late night.

Next day our flight was at 6 in the evening so got ready by 10 and went to Sharjah that was famous for cricket in olden time. We visited the Sharjah stadium too. Coming back we did some shopping, left the hotel and went to air-port. Having reached there we came to know that our scheduled flight had been cancelled and would get mid-night flight. After getting the boarding pass we came out of the air-port to enjoy some more hours in Dubai. By and large we enjoyed a lot in these three days. In the end we reached home in the same night.

Gangotri is a religious place for Hindus. It is said to be the source of Ganga River though it originates from ‘Gomukh’. I also had once got the opportunity to visit the place. We were in group of seven with three children. It was summer when we went there. We reached Rishikesh from where we hired a Jeep to go there that was the best mode of transport in the hills in my opinion. By the time we arrived at Uttarkashi, mid way in the route, it was about to be dark and it was drizzling. So we decided to stay there till morning.

In the morning, we again began to go up to the hills. The moment we reached Gangotri it was noon. We were feeling hungry so we went to a restaurant, where South-Indian dishes were available we had had them as per every body’s choice. I told them about my desire to go to Gomukh. Having listened to my desire Vaibhav and Sambhav also became ready to accompany me in this trip. So I told them to take their bag with one dress. I told them that we wanted to reach Bhoj –wasa, the last point near Gomukh to stay, before sun set. We had started our journey but just after five minutes Vaibhav’s mood had changed, the reason I didn’t know, so he went back to join the remaining group.

On way to Gomukh, just after about a kilometer, we hired a guide who would tell us about route and keep us up date for all necessary information. When we were a few kilometer away from Bhojwasa, the sun was about to set and the cold in the atmosphere had increased. I was just in half sleeve shirt along with a warmer inside. I looked at my forearm and found it red in color with semi-erected hair on it. I thought the color of my skin would have been changed by the effect of the weather. I couldn’t sense that it was the alarming sign as my body had been getting cold inside. By the time I arrived at Bhojwasa I got the attack of watery stool and my body was shaking with cold. I laid down under five-six quilt, even after an hour I was shivering. Then I asked the inn owner about the fire. After understanding my problem he took me near fire. Having sat there for about an hour I felt a little bit comfort. Sambhav and the guide also helped me a lot at that time. Sambhav proved himself matured though he was teenager.

In the morning, next day I was feeling well a lot, so we proceeded to Gomukh that was still five miles ahead. Some of the pilgrims also accompanied us, they were also quite young. I stopped going ahead the moment I saw Gomukh from distance but the other people said they would go just near the origin and told me to send Sambhav with them. After a few hours they all came back.

We decided to return to Gangotri. When we reached Gangotri it was quite dark and we didn’t know where they were staying. But just after a few minutes we found them as they were also eagerly waiting for us. We went to our hotel. I was still not feeling well. I vomited a lot of water twice at night. In the following morning I was feeling well but weakness remained with me. I took bath in hot water in the hotel to go to the temple. At the temple we met our some friends who also came there for the same cause. Meeting each other we felt very happy. After that we came back home.

In Hindu mythology there are twelve ‘Jyotirlinga’, dedicated to Lord Shiva. It can be said that these are the Shiva’s temple where every Shiva devotee should visit once in his life time. Even most of the Hindu’s have desire to go there for the ‘Darshan of the Jyotirlinga’. There is a Jyotirlinga, known as Mallikaarjuna Jyotirlinga at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh. It is two hundred kilometer away from Hyderabad. The convenient route to go to Srisailam is via Hyderabad as it is connected with other big cities by road, train and air.

I also got an opportunity to get Darshan of this Jyotirlinga when I was on tour on Delhi – Nagpur – Hyderabad – Delhi. I along with Mira was on this tour in the middle of October, before Diwali festival, on Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra as we were invited in it. Before going there I did some home-work on this tour and found this Jyotirlinga. I made program in such a way that I could visit this place easily. We reached Hyderabad in the afternoon. Some of our friends were also with us, who were to stay in a hotel named Taj Krishna that was the palace of Nawab Hyderabad at one time but had now been converted into a hotel. They invited us to take lunch with them in Taj Krishna. We couldn’t help refusing their invitation. We all went there for having lunch. After that we all went to see Golconda fort that had some peculiar attractions too. Reaching there I told them if I had seen the whole fort from inside that required minimum one and a half hour I couldn’t have been to Srisailam that day. I apologized to them for not accompanying them inside the fort. They also showed their approval of my plan.

I and Mira went back to our car to go to Srisailam. We got into the car and drove to the destination. After about two hours journey it was dark and there was a single as well as zigzag road though it was in a good condition. I found one very attractive thing on the road that there were reflectors at the every curve on the road so that the driver can drive his vehicle at the curves even in the dark. We enjoyed a lot on the crisscross road in the dark without getting any fear of mishap.

On the way there was a check – post on the road where every vehicle’s number that drove ahead had been noted down by the check-post officer. From this point deep forest starts where even tigers also habitat; it is also called tiger reserve. For going to Srisailam, every body has to cross this eighty kilometer stretch. This stretch has a beautiful single road without any dig or patch work so we cross it with great pleasure. Mira felt little nausea as we were continuously on move for four hours. At the end of this jungle road there was again a check-post where the officer-in-charge noted down our car number in his file. We came out of the car to relax. The ten minutes rest provided us new energy. Mira also got relief from the nauseated feeling. Mean while I talked to the officer who gave me very useful information about the temple and the hotels.

It was about 9 in the evening when we arrived at Srisailam. The driver suggested me a hotel that was good to stay there for a night. I took an AC room there and got ready to go to the temple by 9.30. Within five or ten minutes we were before Lord Shiva in the temple. There were very few devotees inside the temple as the temple was about to close. After getting the Darshan of Jyotirlinga we took the Darshan of Goddess Durga. The temple of Durga is considered a ‘Shakti-peeth’ as per Hindus’ belief. We were about to leave the temple when we saw that the Pujari and some devotees were going to somewhere along with the statues of God and Goddess in the ‘Palki’. Some people were playing musical instruments. They reached near one room inside the temple premises where they laid the statue down on the bed. The moment they laid them down the light had gone and rest of the rituals were performed in the light of oil lamp. Immediately after the act the light had come back. I couldn’t understand that the light had gone out by chance or deliberately. We returned to our hotel and had dinner. Soon we went to bed and slept as were tired.

Next day in the morning I got up as usual and got ready after cleaned my shave as well as took bath. My better half wanted to relax more but I didn’t comment on this issue. By eight she had also got ready and we went to temple again. Now there were some restrictions that one has to follow before entering the temple as you can’t go inside the temple with your camera and mobile phone etc. There were two type of lines for devotees i.e. paid and unpaid line. We chose the unpaid line. There were about one hundred people before us in the queue. It took about an hour to reach before the Jyotirlinga. We got Darshan of the Lord Shiva. When I was standing in the queue I saw a board hanging on the wall that depicted the story of the temple and stated a place where people used to sacrifice their some parts of the body like hand, finger, leg and even tongue. The place where people used to cut their parts of the body is called ‘Mandap’ and it was built by one of the kings for the ‘Punnaya memory’ of his younger father. When I read it, my mind stuck to the word ‘younger father’; I thought the word indicates that ladies at that time might believe in polygamy.

After Darshan we had had breakfast at two places as on the first place it was not in our taste. Mean while our driver came to us as I had already phoned him. We left the hotel, kept our baggage in the car and drove to Hyderabad. On the way we stopped in the middle of the jungle to go deep into the forest to see tigers but people told us that there was no guarantee of watching tigers. So we left the idea and enjoyed in the permitted are of the jungle. We saw the dam built on the ‘Patal Ganga’ river for making electricity that is supplied to Srisailam city. On the way to Hyderabad our car got punctured twice and it wasted our one and a half hour.

After arriving at Hyderabad city we first visited Char Minar, a historical monument, and on its first floor we enjoyed the scenic beauty of the city around it. Before reaching Char Minar one event happened that I forgot to mention here though it was a new experience and was read only in jokes. We stopped at a petrol pump to get the tank of our car filled. Getting the petrol we went ahead and after covering some distance the driver wanted to tell Mira something about the Minar. In this course the driver turned his face back and found that Mira was missing. We both were shocked and surprised. I phoned her on her mobile phone and asked her where she was. Mobile phone had solved our problem in some seconds; it is really a big invention. If it hadn’t been invented how this episode would have been managed.

We went to the famous museum of Hyderabad, called Sallarjung museum. Sallarjung 3^rd. was the last Nawab of Hyderabad as he had no child. The museum was really worth to see. There was a cafeteria inside the museum and we filled our tummy with some snacks as we were feeling hungry. By the time it was 5 in the evening and the museum was in the process of closing. We came out of the museum and visited some shops. Now the watch told us to move to the airport as we were already running short of time. We came back home with some pleasant memories….