Medico friends circle

We were running late. We didn't see the time. It was cold . We didn't mind. The privilege of listening to great minds who have brought a change in people s lives , I m lucky is all I can say.

Their experience is more than a decade older than my age. Their hurdles are something I cannot imagine. Yet , they have proved our generation that "change is possible". The Gandhi s ideas into action by Baba amte , which made JP Narayan to trigger the student movement of the 70s and how they actually felt the responsibility in themselves to acknowledge the need for a change , was my most important learning that day.

It triggered two questions inside me

"As a generation are we really wise enough like them? Or are we just getting excuses to escape from the responsibility?"

I don't think I ll get an answer anytime soon. But I feel , as a generation we have more choices and so more things to worry about. Also what to worry about and what not to worry about . And this corporate culture around us make us believe that everything is a need and nothing is a luxury. In destroying the thin line between luxury and necessity, we are more driven towards a unpredictable future, where in we are made to think only about self and nothing more . It is not wrong to be selfish . But how they turned their selfishness and selflessness into a single entity and took steps for betterment of society and themselves in their lives, is something I wasn't able to contemplate well. As we had discussed, there is a manufactured sense of urgency for a fictitious future in our lives. I hope we all a get a better answer in our search and we also have stories to tell the upcoming generations after three or four decades .

"Are we losing out on their life experience? Is it time for us to listen to the stories as much as possible?"

This was more of a personal question than a discussion on a public domain. I felt this is the right time to gives ears to the life they have gone though , their every step towards learning new perceptions of handling things and making the country better. The courage they had and they have to question the odds can be learnt only by being with them and recieving the positive energy . I feel it's my responsibility to not only do justice to my thoughts but also to collect the experience from them. Of course both past and future are significantly important in shaping my life. The day was beautiful.

It was a blend of their experiment and our anticipation for the betterment of our country and ourselves. And what will be the better place than sevagram, where Gandhi lived his life , to learn this?

Medico Friends Circle - is an organisation running for more than 4 decades with like minded people working for health . It includes public health professionals, doctors , nurses, journalists , activists, lawyers, entrepreneurs and anyone working towards better health. Most of the cities have their own chapter of MFC. And their annual meeting happens at a particular place with a theme . This year it happened at sevagram ashram, Maharashtra. The theme was " Health for all".