world cancer day message

Modern medicine has most definitely brought a paradigm change in the outcome of Cancer patients .
The number of survivors with a cure has definitely gone up ,those who are not cured too live longer and have a better quality of life with better therapies and supportive care available to them .
Though one has to mention the financial toxicity of modern cancer treatments which cannot be avoided since it involves costly trials and evidence based rigorous firewalls to introduce a new medicine or therapy as needed scientifically for the protection of the cancer patient .
Immunotherapy, targeted therapy ,more sophisticated surgery and Radiotherapy ,all has made a difference ,albeit at a cost .

The need for a sensible insurance policy and health policy to aid the cancer patient is a dire necessity
.
While on this topic we also have factors which are inimical to good cancer treatment .
These are not new and have always been the anti thesis in the fight against the scourge cancer .

Prevention is better than cure is an adage which has lot of sense in oncology ,the Screening programmes accepted for a few cancers like colon ,Breast ,cervix and the use of vaccines against hepatitis B and c for susceptible population and HP virus vaccines need a large scale public information campaign to reach out to the millions ,but unfortunately neither the center nor the states have realized this and the amount of funds allotted to this vital oncology prevention is meager ,to a certain extent NGO s have contributed their mite but they are just drops in an ocean needed .

one cannot understand a country which has hundreds of TV channels ,millions of social media sites,thousands of newspapers and journals and FM radio networks that bore you with uninspiring serials and idiotic political debates dont spend even one percent of their time on this vital transformation of information
its pertinent that these messages as well as the do and donts and early signs of cancer reach out to the public both educated and uneducated as the right knowledge on cancer is abysmal .

The second biggest obstacle for ethical oncology practitioners in India is the huge grey market which spreads misinformation and myths on Cancer to gain by way on unscientific treatments and thousands of claims which prevent people taking treatment at the right time and allow their cancers to grow to a stage that cure is no more possible
The valuable window of treatment is lost by these claims which are allowed by ruling governments to continue and some even encouraged and supported .
Myths abound on diet about what causes and what prevents cancer written by charlatans , who know nothing to do with anything ,
The system of a country should be alert to such false claims but unfortunately all kinds of quacks feed cancer patients with false hopes and lure them from taking correct treatment while sucking their resources , the only goal being to make money by exploiting fears .

One thing we can be smug about is this is not only happening in India but in many other countries too but that is no satisfaction .

Its time such false claims are exposed and quacks are punished and money spent on supplements are stopped and social media posts which support unscientific claims are clamped by the police strictly ,in the fight against cancer we can ill afford to have such obstacles
Having worked in oncology for last three decades i had seen several such cases going hay wire as they indulged in indigenous treatments ,homeo medications and the like by quacks and wasted valuable time and have regretful disease later ,
Its sad to know that those who could have been cured are pushed into sure death by suffering because of these charlatans .

Even those who are undergoing treatment spend money on costly supplements unnecessary dietary restrictions believing such canards and suffer by costs and ill health due to these .

There has been lot of experiences where patients suffer from hematological discrepancies unrelated to their treatment only on investigating repeatably we come to know patient is on some supplement or medication of some other system and that was causing the whole problem ,patients are told to take it along with the chemotherapy to assure of a good cure as chemotherapy would not do that and patients trust them without telling it to their medical oncologists
Its time these kind of myths are broken and claimants are arrested by the health system in the country
This is my message on this world cancer day .

Nuwara Eliya the Munnar of Sri Lanka

As scheduled we left after breakfast to Nuwara Eliya The hill station of Sri Lanka from Kandy the famous lake city of the tooth relic
Nuwara eliya was a hill station made by the British  around 2500 mts ASL .
On the  way we  drove into Peradiniya university as suggested by my classmate now in the US but who was 10 years in Kandy and belongs to Sri Lanka .

We stopped in 3 more places
A tea factory 
Chinmaya missions Hanuman temple in Romgoto
A lovely waterfall

The tea factory was like the one in Munnar albeit much smaller .
We were taken around the process of making tea sorting it marketing it etc
Sri lankan tea is known for its quality but then living in Cochin and travelling to Munnar ,Darjeeling ,Ooty ,mananthavadi Tea was old hat to me
We did sip a cuppa and bought a mandatory packet .

The Hanuman temple was on a lovely hill a few steps climb and we were there.
The idol was huge .

The waterfall needed a steep descent into a hotel whose elevator took us down near the waterfall .
Luckily the hotel shuttle spared us the ascent and descent .

It was hot all along till we checked into Nature first our hotel for the day a long 15 km from Nuwara Eliya but place was on a nice perch and we got a top floor room almost a penthouse with a wide balcony .
After an hour we proceeded into nuwara eliyathen on to Sita eliya .
This was where Sita lord Rams consort was kept by Ravanan after his abduction of Sita devi
It was supposed to be a rock shelf with a cave a flowing stream and wooded forest called Asokha vanam .
She was supposed to have been guarded by Ravanas female demons as she refused to fall to his whims .
It was here Hanuman came to her with a message from Ram and there is an impression of a huge foot on a rock called Hanumans foot .
The place looked right for the epic legend as  believed by millions of Hindus .
There were lot of monkeys too .

I came to know from a priest that the temple was just 40 years old but was built on the site where an older one existed for years .

We returned into Nuwara Eliya which like all British built hill stations had quaint English cottages ,narrow mountain roads ,green vegetables sold on the roadside,resorts,parks a huge lake the  Gregory lake with speeding motor boats and walkways .

We had some food from a hotel and it was regretful .

By evening the cool breeze brought chill in the air and as mists came down we drove down to our hotel for a fitfull sleep .

the next day we left after one of the best breakfasts we had in Sri Lanka .

Tooth relic temple Kandy

Sri Dalada Maligawa is the name of the holy temple in Kandy ,Sri Lanka which preserves the tooth of Lord Buddha himself .
A well known pilgrim center for Buddhists from all over the world the temple has a fascinating story of adventure ,romance,war,death and life,serenity,peace and sublime spirituality behind it .
We consider it as a grace of God that we could visit this most beautiful temple which had an unmistakable aura of positivity and peace around it .
When Lord Buddha attained nirvana after his cremation in kusinara in India his remains were kept by many regional kings and Arahats
His left canine tooth was taken by an Arahat who later gave it to king Brahmadatte who preserved it as a precious family heirloom for around 800 years in the city of Dantapuri .
By this time it had changed hands and had come to king Guhaseeva of kalinga kingdom .
When one king Pandu heard that Guhaseeva was worshipping a tooth as a relic he ridiculed Guhaseeva asked him to produce the relic which Guhasiva did to show him its miracle
When Pandu listening to jain and Hindu monks tried tried to destroy the tooth it flew away as a bright star on which the king realized its sacredness and turned into a Buddhist .
Hearing this king ksheeradhara came to was with Guhasiva and defeated him .
Before the enemy attacked the city king Guhasiva asked his daughter Hemamala and son in law prince Dantha to carry the relic to Lankadweepa where his friend king kithshirimevan son of king Mahasena ruled .

Dhantha and Hema mala carried the relic .
In certain areas Hema mala had to hide the relic in her hair .
Once it gets stolen by a cobra and its taken to nagaloga where the naga princess and prince worship it .
Somehow they are able to get back the tooth which they take by land and sea to lankadweepa anf from port go to lankapuri .they are told to go to Anuradhapura where the kong resided.
They hand over the tooth to the king finally a job well done

Finally after many travails they reach Lanka and are told to go to Anuradhapura to meet the king .
They do that and finally the relic is handed over to king who becomes the first in a line of kings who would defend the relic with life and more .
The kings of Sri lanka associated longevity of thier empire by preserving the relic hence built temples close to their palaces to house it .
During times of war the relic was hidden in homes ,several times templeneeded to be rebuilt .
Finally its housed in the Dalada Maligawa of Kandy which incidentally had the last kingdom of Sri Lanka .
Even in the modern times there were two attempts to destroy it in 1989 and later by LTTE in 1998 .

So today morning at 9am we reached to outer perimeter of the Dala maligawa .

We saw the hexagonal pathirippuwa or viewing balcony when the relic is shown to people .pathirippu is Tamil for to see and the place was used to viewing or paathirippu .
The temple has a moat in front after crossing several qauint buildings we reached a double storeyed neat building .
We climbed up to the main hall .
On one side people were walking upto the altar which was closed .many offered flowers some had a round parcel on their heads .
I asked one pilgrim what it signified and was told the parcel had all needed for life and this was offered to the lord as offering .
We were informed that the inner temple would happen in an hour and we could join a line and wait .
We did so 

Premila sat in a corner and meditated while i went on clicking photos .
The hall was neat with wooden floors .
After an hour we crawled in the line to see the gold vessel holding the relic .
We returned via the museum and saw kandy palace and went back with a delight of having had a profound spiritual experience