Photograph: PA Downtown on beautiful summer evening.

These thoughts have been with me for years now. Then, I was a student and an employee. So ethically, it wasn’t right to write an analysis about an organization. I always looked for excuses to stay away from writing on this topic. Seven years later, now, I feel there is a strong need for an analysis to be presented to the Indian Physical Therapy world. Not that they don’t know of it.

But to insist that they be aware of it .

A very few people who frequent my blog know that I am Physical Therapist by profession.Jussri.com is a result of the struggle I went through to survive that education system.So I would like to devout some of my scribble space for it.For years now, I was under pressure to be careful about what I write and how it would reflect my career prospects. Lest that I would be understood as a rebel who is always pointing fingers.The fear always stemmed from my well wishers who didn’t want anymore trouble for me.

But today, I know why it is important to be fearless about my scribbles.The places where I studied and worked are both well known ‘brands’ in the industry here in South India. One an organization as old as India’s Independence and another, a mushrooming growth of India’s fitness industry.

Q & A Session

Why did I join these organizations?
Because they brandished a lot of ‘genuineness’ in their branding

What I wanted to learn from them?
To learn from them the ‘genuineness’ they flaunted.

What I got to learn?
That real growth is in letting others grow and it seldom happens in these places.

All these criteria are very obsolete now a days.
For many years now, I felt educational institutions alone had the ultimate responsibility in sculpting a professional’s attitude towards one’s profession.But moving on to be an employee, looking at things from close quarters, I understood that it wasn’t entirely correct.

In the last 3-4 years, India has been witnessing a revolutionary growth in the demand of rights for physios across the country. Demands vary from government jobs to prefix titles to be permitted for PTs.I ask only one question.

Are we asking the right questions?

What did NIDIA find very unsettling in the Physio world here in India after having seen the other side of the globe and it’s professionals?
Few facts which are clear examples of unethical professional practices:

People are forced to start their new jobs without even having an offer letter.It is a rarity to have a standard induction procedure for a new employee of the company.
Lack of transparency in monetary transactions.
People are forced to ‘transform’ and become ‘ethical’ (which means that you bend your mind and accept their philosophy irrespective of it’s moral accuracy).
Endure all sorts of inhuman attitudes from the management under the pretext of managerial pressures.
While Anna Hazare is stirring the nation’s youth into corruption fighting army, here is India’s youth, Kalam’s young army, exploiting the local administration at all levels to ensure the company runs well and makes it’s end day profit figure.

What alarmed me was the indifference of these professionals towards their progressive, ‘holistic’ deterioration as professionals in this mad run to ‘impress’ the management.

What is happening in India?Private owned single proprietorship companies surviving the turn of the millennium, exploiting the ‘cheap labour’ of small town professionals whose ultimate goal is to have job security.

My heart goes out for these physiotherapists who work under exploited conditions for unbelievably long hours and are paid a pittance.The salaries are reasonably higher than what the market offers.

Please don’t begin the debate of financial security and poor families. The ones who really hail from the families that have valued hard work and honesty for generations, never ‘sell’ themselves disrespecting their own knowledge.They treasure the wisdom they are blessed with. Those ones are still striving to elevate their professional standards and at the same time are trying to be of use to the society with their skill set.

About 8 weeks ago, I was debating on a social networking site about Infosys-selling minds-at cheaper costs blah blah blah. But I so respect Mrs & Mr Murthy for living a simple life(minus the business scenario where he didn’t super encourage young research minds). I don’t know their property details or how they live. But simplicity jumps out of their personalities and it is truly inspiring.

When my fellow physios asked me why I wasn’t a member of some national organisation or why wasn’t I working as a physio in India, this was my reason. I’d rather share my knowledge freely with the people around me in little possible ways than to sell my hard work to degrade the profession more.

Before we raise a voice and question the Government for our rights, look around what organisations we are encouraging. Look where we are standing and where are we holding our respect as professionals.

If money making was the only goal and incentives were our only target, there are many other professions where we can get more rich.Don’t yell at the Government. Yell within ourselves. Look within for answers.

When I walked out because I couldn’t compromise on my ethics and my way of being a physio, I was asked to give back my one month’s of pittance.

It wasn’t about the $148 dollars I returned without a single second thought.

What pulled me down and crashed my hopes about Physical Therapy in India was the way the entire experience unfolded.

I had the courage and security to say no to money despite working hard for more than 20 days averaging about 10 hours a day. What about the ones who cannot lose even those $148 despite facing unprofessional work environments?

I care and I share. But I no longer dare.Here’s bidding a bye bye to all the pessimism I have been engulfed with for so many weeks.
Thank you for all the constant encouragement and support which is helping me become a better person with each passing day.

I remain,

Jussri

I know I have been away for a very long time. Situations fire my thoughts and I feel a strong need to write instantly. But I stay away. I am a serious believer in responsible journalism. And I don’t want to WUI (Write Under Influence). And today I see it pays to be patient.

As a photographer when I captured the images of women, I wondered why some of them had so much make up on their faces which were really pretty minus the make up.The reasons vary and are not important except for one. Pimples. The newly arrived ones need less make up and less hiding. The chronic ones need unbelievable amount of what ever those powders and pastes are called.

The more these women tried to hide their pimples, the less they looked like themselves. The adding layers of powders and pastes made their skins look smooth, but their features seemed less like them.As time progressed from minutes to hours, there would be a growing restlessness in trying to get the make up off and let the skin breath free.

Why were there pimples at all?
Many physiological and pathological reasons exist(you can find them on google)
In common man terms, because there are impurities in the blood, they are showing up on the skin.
What is the treatment?
Best medical practitioners always treat the ‘source’ of the symptom than the symptom itself.So the ones who could get rid of their pimples were the ones who learnt to identify the cause and treat it.
The ones who failed in ‘treating’ pimples are the ones who are left with scars today. Scars which are bad enough to rattle the confidence about their appearance and life.

Life’s another lesson taught me to make this analogy.

OD and HRD together are equivalent to the relation that people and pimples share with each other. A budding problem in an organization is equivalent to an imbalance that can begin in a human body physiologically. Symptoms don’t show up unless the level of imbalance reaches a peak. Similarly, a problem seems minuscule unless the aftermath is as devastating as leaving a permanent scar on a beautiful face.

The more ‘makeup’ ( avoiding a frank handling) to hide the pimple(the problem) will only make the face(organization) look less like itself and artificial. When I began my career in physical therapy in India, I had no clue what it was all about.Today seven years later, I know why India is still not a leader in it.

We didn’t make the first computer. Nor did we write the first code for programming. We barely had a world class business school. Yet, today India in undoubtedly the largest supplier of IT intelligence to the world. Ever wondered Why?

We had the right people guiding us the less walked path.We had India’s middle class working towards the dream of living in a more comfortable India where there was more employment and better education.

The ‘pimple’ that I write about is the attitude of the medical sector we have here in India. The ‘pimple’ of professionals who let their intelligence to be sold and don’t care if they are mishandled and less respected. The ‘pimple’ of those who make money with hard work of another professional under the garb of professional ethics and legal loopholes.

Often times people ask me , “How is the field ‘there’ ?”
There = USA

I rudely want to say, it is good because they value their hard work and don’t sell themselves to make money. But the hypocrite in me says , “Yeah, it’s good. Same as in India.” and I know that is a blatant lie.The NIDIA inside me is shrieking in horror at the false answers I give to people when they ask me about the western world and work ethics.

The Western world respects hard workers.
The rules are not ‘talked about’.They are implemented meticulously.
The legalities are ‘taken care of’ not exploited.
Knowledge is shared ‘unconditionally’ never sold selectively.

Yesterday I walked out of an organization smiling with my heart content about the lesson I’ve learnt. And I am going to share it with the world, specially the Indian world and especially the Physio Indian World. There will be a new series of write ups I will share under the title Share and Care 2012 (all dedicated to the Indian Physiotherapists).

I care, I share but I ask you, Do you Dare?

PS: OD=Organizational Development and HRD= Human Resource Development

With all my honest prayers for the physio world,

Jussri

25 years of endless love,
30 years of heroic kindness,
Is not all that I want from you,
I need more endless love and heroism from you .
Here’s to the best woman I have grown up watching,
For giving me another lovely angel to fall in love with more again..

Ageing and Grace remind me of two women. One, my maternal grandmother Sattiraju Ratnamba. Well, it would be appropriate to put up her picture here but I am very possessive of her portraits most of the times. Another, Maharani Gayathri Devi. Her images always screamed graceful ageing.

Having observed my grand mother for many years now, I am dumb struck at the dignity with which she embraces ageing and the associated responsibilities.

Dignity needs dedication, devotion and discipline towards human spirit and body

When I meet people as a therapist and they talk about health problems, I am astonished by listening to health facts(most of the times, assuming myths) that ‘educated’ people come up with during the counselling sessions.Educated include people close to the cadres of post graduates from various fields including medicine.The sad thing about being a part of the ‘transition’ generation, the ‘we are born’ in 80s people, are often the ones at the losing end with reference to health and fitness.

Till a couple of years ago, my grandmother never changed her schedule which she followed for at least, 65 years or even above.(I don’t know her real age). And it is difficult to guess because she has real few white hair strands in her hair. Her schedule typically was that of a middle class Indian housewife.As a therapist when I analyze what she did, there is so much clarity on why people of her generation age gracefully and never have visited doctors till they reached 65 years and beyond.

When she woke up each morning and went to bed each night at a very specific time, she was biologically ‘respecting’ her circadian rhythm

When she walked for 4 kilometers each morning, she did her every day endurance training

When she reached out to pluck flowers from trees and plants for her daily prayers, she maintained her shoulder ranges( she never complained of Peri-arthritis. It is one of the most painful conditions that can functionally disable a person to a great extent. Most commonly reported condition for many women these days).

When she cooked, meals always had very little oil, right proportion of spices, fresh ground ‘chutneys’ with very little oil, and soup styled rasam(good for digestion).The snacks she made for us never made any of our more than 2 dozen cousins obese.

She bathes twice a day even today. Prays two times a day. She still does it. Being non-religious, I see it as a systematic way of maintaining personal hygiene and focusing on one’s own self twice a day. May be her reason is similar too. We never talked on it. I never asked. She never spoke about it.

The list is endless.

She spent more than half of her life living in harmony with nature and she literally co-existed with nature.
She always had a kitchen garden. She absolutely loves flowers and plants.

Today when I listen to patient’s history as a part of assessment, I rarely find ‘nature’ around them. They lack respect towards their bodies and abuse their bodies and minds to the point of no return.

I know Indians who ‘cut’ down so much on regular Indian food in the quest to follow, researched, published diet patterns that they can rarely even relish real high quality cooking. They live ‘sedentary’ lives in self built, expensive urban jungles.And in turn pay a fortune to go to air conditioned gymnasiums to hire expensive trainers who teach us common sense at exploited costs.

Getting closer to the field of fitness and rehabilitation as my career progresses, I understand few things and here are they.

Health problems are well understood and can be managed if you don’t fail to use your common sense.
Don’t rush to a nearest professional for every health concern.
Avail the most powerful available to us right now. Internet.
Google every word you have a question about.
Be well informed when you visit a health care professional.
Don’t be lazy.
Sedentary entertainment is USELESS and HARMFUL too. Get up and get going.
Dieting is the worst form of losing excess weight.
Losing weight is NOT an INDEX of getting healthier.

If you aren’t old enough to be already having a lot of ‘acquired’ lifestyle diseases and are reading this article, do two things right now.
Share this with the elders in your family.
Get up and get going.

Age gracefully.

PS: If you have a family member or friend who needs advice of a physical therapist, write to me at my e mail. I shall answer the questions if I can or shall get back with ‘first to be done’ advice from the senior professionals around me. Stop following unscientific short cuts for health problems.

The number of people who read a book is directly proportional to the degree of simplicity the book carries..

Why write of simplicity today?

Last week I met some one who is very simple yet stupendous.
If there is one person I have met in flesh, who can kick your spirit to start loving simplicity. It is this person.

Last month I turned 25. My siblings gifted me Steve’s biography.I assume what a lot of us love about Steve is his ‘simplicity of design’ in making Apple products. His book looks the exact sibling of any Apple product. Simple yet classy. I remember reading in it:

When you think something is complex, that means you have not understood it well enough.

These lines are from Einstein’s biography that the same author has written too. The author draws an analogy between these lines and Steve’s initial ideas about design and electronics. I believe since Steve got his foundations for passion strong and right at the same time, he ended up enchanting the world with his innovations. Here I was looking at a very similar person in the field of fitness and rehabilitation.

Simple.Fitness.Complex.Science.This is how I want to arrange the key words for this blog.

Simplicity is rare to find these days.Specially when there is an over load of information, complexity becomes a close cousin.Fitness is one such domain.Despite having a professional degree in a related field, I have always been in search of one professional (or organisation) who would have a ‘ holistic’ approach towards fitness as a science.Again, holistic is an over used, less implemented term in fitness and rehabilitation as I have noticed across these years. I agree there are scores of people across the world who are amazing professionals when it comes to the fields of fitness and rehabilitation. But when I mention a country like India, being ‘one’ among those hundreds is an amazing feat.It is like beating against all odds to be a champion.And here was this person who was smiling his way through the entire complex thing of fitness and rehabilitation like a breeze.

Having followed updates of this person over the internet for years, getting to see him in person has been a truly humbling experience. Living in the US, and seeing how people consider fitness to be a part of their every day life has been a huge learning experience for me. When I try drawing a parallel between both the scenarios, the Indian and the American(rather Western) way of fitness, I have a huge chart of differences and commons between both the worlds. I have been one of those hundreds of students and professionals in India who have always been on a look out for an excellent medium to learn from.

Weighing and balancing the existing differences is the only point where I think, this person has hit the right cord.He pounds the entire essence of fitness into such simple terms that they make sense to a completely illiterate person too.

I feel relieved to know that there is a professional place in Hyderabad to turn to for fitness and rehabilitation.
Well, I think India’s fitness and rehabilitation industry is blessed to have SPARRC around.

SPARRC is the brain child of Mrs Sujatha Pugazhendhi and Dr. Kannan Pugazhendhi, a well known Sport Medicine practitioner from India.

I have been in contact with SPARRC’s staff for over a week to co ordinate my mother’s treatment schedules. I am amazed at the professionalism they exhibit as Physical Therapists or Trainers. Well, it might be a matter of surprise to a lot of my readers when I say I am amazed. Let me explain.

Over the years, I have experienced a burning need for India to embrace professionalism in medicine and related fields both as a citizen and young professional.The wait has been painfully long to see such an organisation in Hyderabad.It has been like sitting in Hyderabad and eating a cold, bland, Hyderabadi Biryani on a festival day and still not being able to kill the cook.

Today, when I see a progress in the rehabilitation scenario, I want those efforts to be lauded instantly.

And when I write here as a NIDIA, I am grinning greedily that India still holds hope in making a mark in the Olympics some day soon, thanks to people at organisations like SPARRC.

PS: Cycling is an excellent way of fitness. And Hyderabad is lucky to have HBC

Reminds me of that ‘pigeon lady’ from Home Alone movie. Love those lines she speaks and love the conversation between her and the small kid specially.

The most common and beautiful scene in most of the US cities , Brides walking down the streets in flowing gowns with photographers in tow Me wants to be that photographer one day

Yeah ! Yeah! I know I am getting regular on my blog

Question:Why this story today?
Answer: A dear friend and critic asked me why I am so positive when I write so much about super negative things that people loathe.

Point 1: I am not ‘so’ positive.
Point 2: I have super bad days to such heights that my family and friends end up having bad times along with me
Point 3: I keep away from blogging in ‘those’ days and spend my time doing all sorts of DIY projects, singing to myself and reading many many books.
Point 4: I restrain from talking it out even with my best friends because, at the end of the day, any problem which is not a nature’s fury, is a mere human creation and it will vanish with time.

I get constant criticism and encouragement for my work these days. And it is a huge push for me. Many a time, I receive anonymous emails from strangers who write such mean things against me that I almost begin to guess who it is by the way they utter their frustrations:) . As much as I enjoy keeping my Heera’s anonymous, I love receiving these anonymous e-mails too.I read the nameless e mail a couple of times, guess who it could be and press the ‘delete’ button. Well, it’s simple. When you meet a lot of people, and read(from books or people), you are bound to have some opinions of your own. There are equal chances of a good number of those people you meet to end up being your well-wishers( antagonists in my language).You know who says what after sometime.

Initially I used to sulk over those mean words uttered against me for so many days that I would even forget my own goodness and begin to hate myself. This was ‘me’ many years back and this is everybody, everyday, everywhere on this earth.Unless, we devise a way around it.I know it hurts to be misunderstood, misjudged and be condemned. A very few can know that unless they have been pushed to that limits where it becomes obvious.

I was misjudged once and I paid a ‘huge’ price for it . Many times after those five years, I have been misunderstood so badly that it no longer hurts. There comes a point within yourself , beyond which hurtful, spiteful words seem minuscule.

When I look at the life in US, and in India, I see such a huge difference in the way people’s minds are shaped.
The reasons, discussions, debates on attitudes and lifestyles is not really important. People and their attitudes are a result of the environment they grow up in. I remember having read a line in my psychology text book back in 2005. That line never left my mind. I have quoted it a zillion times till now. To my patients, students, juniors, friends and to everyone who has met me till date. I am always quoting it.

” The effect of environment on a growing human mind and personality is profound.Growing is the key word here. If a human chooses to let his/her mind grow, they are always learning. Once physical age becomes your scale for intellectual maturity, you stop growing. “

When you wait a minute, and re-read, or recollect the spiteful words, hurtful actions, you have so many answers within yourself. What causes the instant surge of hurt is the most common enemy of every human who has walked on this earth.

The ‘I, Me, Myself’ .

Once you begin to master that ‘minute’ patience of a minute in any uncomfortable situation, you are leading yourself onto a path of happiness and peace.

In the US, the best thing I learn is the way people never want to ‘fret’ about anything. I fail in assigning a definite term for it. But when we Indians begin to learn from them, we should not be naive to imbibe that attitude directly into our lives and cultures. Direct application of those attitudes, which do not come to you naturally in your environment, will be such huge misfits that, we will realize the damage only at the aftermath.

When I call Yesterday a Dream, I know it is not. I have lived through it. I have felt it. I I have struggled my way through it. But like a dream, I choose to keep the goodness of it, be aware of the meanness of it and trash the unkindness of it.

Yesterday was Life’s another dream,
Unwilling to let me into living’s real stream.
Do you ask me if I despise it?
I smile and say it was a learning disguising it

Heroes and Heeras

Location: Texas & Hyderabad
Time: Across the last 8 months

Today I write about two heroes I met . I will call them Heera one and Heera two.

Heera in Hindi means Diamond.Often used in India as a synonym to best(child/son/daughter when praised)

All the heroes of my blog will always be anonymous.Anonymity is a dangerous thing to employ because it leads to unnecessary curiosity. I have a simple reason for using it.

Heroism requires courage .
Courage dissipates a lot of energy.
The first thing a victorious person wants to do is enjoy the success in solitude.Imbibe as much energy as they can from the nature around them and then wait for their next crusade.

Most of my heroes live in creative solitude. At times, I just love to stand by and watch them enjoy their creative craziness. And that is the only time I so dearly wish to help that craziness get more crazy so that I see the most astounding work of art.

Several months ago, I met Heera one , a ‘young’ lady who changed the way I looked at one thing in life. Courage. I often thought courage was being fearless. Meeting this person made me understand a whole new meaning of courage. The story of her life proved to me that courage was just not being fearless, but fighting that fear. And fighting till you can kill the source of that fear.

It is common these days to hear about divorce and harassment stories. Hence no descriptions here. Heera one lived in a horrible environment and survived it. I wonder looking at her today if she is real or she’s some illusion in front of me. She lived on. Never gave up.Today she is a larger than life image of patience and perseverance in women for me.

Fast forward those ‘several’ months and yesterday I met Heera two, another ‘young’ girl who has survived a similar nightmare in India.Survived is a very insensitive term to even describe her victory over the marital cruelty that she went through. What she lost in that battle is still evident on her face.The chirpiness of her soul.Talking to her makes me understand another reality of life. When there is a problem and a human is a survivor, there are questions.

Questions which demand answers, yet not believed in.

Cutting out the details, I could classify humans into the following categories :

The curious questionnaires
The insensitive instigators
The ‘no-nonsense, go fight for yourself’ titans
And the last but never the least, sympathy showering loved ones.

The most over rated of all these categories are the last kind who shower love to only worsen the matters.

Heera one fought, survived, waited for the best days and made the most hay when the summer lasted.Heera two survived but lost herself in the chaos because there were too many people around her who seldom helped her realistically and regularly bothered her meaninglessly.

Where lived Heera one ?
She lived in the US

Where lived Heera two?
She lived in India.

India is a country where cultural roots are equally rewarding and punishing.The changing times still fail to make people see life from a practical perspective. Stuck to old age norms and methods, women are still subjected to all sorts of experimental approaches towards life.

Today when I look at these two heroes, I am proud to be born as a woman. But I feel bad to be still in a part of the society where making choices or surviving challenges are still probed, questioned and discussed with no obvious benefits to both the heroes or the debaters.

What happens when I scribble about this?
I see the heeras smiling at both this article and me, asking me a mute question.

Will humanity ever learn humanity?