Invited guest editorial in FPA Times (magazine of Family Physician Association of Rajkot)-February-2015

Once, a teacher draws a line on the blackboard in the class. He then asks the class to make the line shorter without touching it. Nobody except a boy takes the challenge. He stands up confidently and quietly and walks towards the blackboard to draw a line slightly longer than that drawn by the teacher. He proved the line drawn by the teacher to be shorter, without touching it.

We all have read or heard the incident since our childhood. How simple it is to understand but how difficult it is to practice!

Friends, the election fever is over and by the time this editorial is published, the results would be out.  Hopefully they would be in the favor of the better governance and better future of our motherland.

The overall behavior of politicians; whether during campaign or in the assembly or while addressing the media, is disgusting.  It hurts immensely to see the level at which our politics and politicians have degraded. The word politics have shamefully become a synonym of the game of “leg pulling”. Nobody has ideals or goals. They want to raise themselves by sitting over the shoulders of others. Everybody seems to be blind regarding their vision. They do not have their own ladder of principles to climb up. Only thing they   do is pull down the opponents by accusations in a false effort to lift him up.

Are we not consciously or unconsciously behaving like the politicians, sometimes, in our practice? The small story in the beginning has a big message. Success, like length, is always a relative term. There cannot be a shortcut to the steps climbed one by one to reach the top. By defaming or criticizing a colleague, you may feel   the thrill of moving up faster as in the lift. But remember, the lift may breakdown some day.  The steps climbed one by one slowly on the basis of principles and skills are sure to bring us to the peak. Even if you cannot reach the top, you are surely to gratify your conscience at whatever height achieved.

We need to save our profession from the dirty politics of “leg pulling”. We should thrive to grow and prosper by raising our own potentials and grades. We should learn to lengthen our line of success without touching the line of fellow colleagues. Our lines of practice must run parallel by healthy competition, ready to meet and merge in times of crisis, but never to cut or cross by rivalry or ill intention.

Dr. NEEMA SITAPARA

MD (Ped), PGDip. (Adolescent Pediatrics)