Dr Ashok Kumar from Glasgow

This little man was waiting for me for almost one hour in a posh club in Gurgaon today. It was an unscheduled meeting for me as Arvind on the way spoke about him. It was all a shocking day as Arvind straight took me to his home in the morning. Its unprofessional for me but somehow that's the way people from Hariana are; over friendly and meaningful.

Arvind works with government and so also works for us. Funny country and funny job! He told me that his current posting doesnt warrant him to go to office and he can do whatsoever he wants to do in the day, but leave Arvind, let us meet Dr Ashok Kumar.

I am not well these days. Problem of 2002 has cropped up. Absence of a spleen makes the pottasium level to change first. How many days one can pull like this? I need to undergo the scalpel sooner or latter, but at least I should bear for one more year, till Google complete class ten, because I know once the surgery happens to the liver, then you just have to wait for the end, may be very painful end is waiting somewhere and approaching me soon!! Many people ask me why do I talk about death so often, they dont know the pain that I am going through.

So this meeting was for something else, for checking my reports and guessing how many more days the lever can bear the turture of the high level of bile duct and how can I manage the swellings these days as they are occuring very often. I met Dr Ashok around 2 PM, he was wearing a cap and smiling man. I greeted him and he also responded with an English accent, of course working 30 years of life in UK would have changed my accent.

I asked him, what made him to come to India. He smiled and replied, Manmohan singh is responsible. I met him in a Pravasi Bharatiya Dinner and he invited me to come back to India and start a medical college and hospital in India. For last two years Dr Ashok Kumar is running lamp and post to raise fund for the hospital. Government of Bihar has given him all clearances including pollution clearances and he has purchased land for the medical college but he never expected that corruption level in India has gone so high over last 30 years.

i could read out the pain in his eyes and could see the dream of one day doing the medical college in patna. Everybody lives with a dream, a hope for tomorrow, for doing something, for leaving a legacy for people to remember them.

Do I have a dream now? Probably not, just living like a bilological animal, spending moments and years and doing nothing that meaningful. It was a great solace to meet people like Dr Ashok Kumar and chance upon his dreams, see the helplessness of a person who wanted to do things for his state but corrupt system is killing the enthusiasm.

May God bless Dr Ashok Kumar and may his dream be fulfilled.

I will write about the evening of 30th November at IIMAhemadabad campus that I spent with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. But I need to write a long note on him and my interaction with him, may be tomorrow.