Ventilators- Life Savers In Kashmir

Ventilators- Life Savers In Kashmir

Shakeel Maqbool

 

Kashmir valley has a population of 70 lakh and it has 97 ventilators. The government is procuring around 100 more. New York city has a population of 80 lakh and its city mayor Bill de Blasio says he needs 15,000 more. The comparison tells a scary story of the sorry state of affairs where we are in. 

 

Countries around the world are racing against time to procure ventilators. Car manufacturers, rail manufacturers, all manufacturers who can; are trying to manufacture ventilators. Even in India the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, the makers of Train 18 (India’s first electric semi-high speed train), is attempting to manufacture ventilators.

 

India lacks an official figure on the number of ventilators it has. Rough estimates peg it at around 40,000. This is around 1 ventilator for 32000 people. With the 97 ventilators in valley, we have around 1 ventilator per 70000 people.  In UK they had around 7000 ventilators for around 7 crore people which is 1 ventilator per 10000. They have just ordered for 10000 more ventilators and will soon take the ratio down to 1 ventilator per 3000 people, with more ventilators in the pipeline. Even Pakistan next door has declared they are procuring 10000 more to take the total to 12000 ventilators which makes roughly 1 ventilator per 16000 people.

With a population of 70 lakh, if the Kashmir valley wants to reach the level of UK, we need 2300 ventilators. Even to reach the capacity of Pakistan, we need roughly 450 ventilators. But how many are we going to have with all the procurement going smoothly is 200 to 250 ventilators. The situation is desperate.

 

 

But why are ventilators so important in Covid crises. Simply because they save lives. A good percentage of Covid patients suffer from respiratory failures and need ventilators to stay alive. Now if there is a large number of such patients and the ventilators are just not enough, patients who could have recovered will simply die. One of the most obvious ways to avoid a shortage of ventilators, is to reduce the numbers of people catching the disease in the first place. That means following all the health advice, including social distancing and lock downs. But we need to be prepared for the worst. Community transmission has already been observed in the Kashmir valley and often the viral spread explodes in a few weeks.

 

According to most experts Covid is here to stay till we get the vaccine, which looks atleast one year away. Personal Protective Equipments, lockdowns, hygiene awareness are all golden measures but they may only delay the spread. We need to focus on the curative aspects besides the preventive measures. Like it or not ventilators are going to be the lynchpin of curative efforts. 

 

Ventilators are in short supply. They take at least a month to deliver and get installed and that too if they are available. We have got to have some contingency planning for acquiring, installing and operating them; in case there is an explosion of Covid in the community and that is not farfetched at all.

 

However ventilators are not easy machines to handle and operate. They need well trained staff and often invasive surgical procedures to put patients on them. A ventilator alone cant do anything, it needs an ICU ecosystem to operate. Be that as it may, there is no going away from the fact that we need ventilators and we need more and more of them desperately. We also need to put the rest of the pieces in their ecosystem in place in order for them to function. Ventilators simply save lives; tens and hundreds of them.

 

 

Shakeel Maqbool is a Civil Servant,

Central Civil Services, Government of India

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A Few Impressions @GWP Srinagar

Suhail sir

One of the best persons I have met(believe me I am not flattering J). I still remember the day of joining ,when I came to his cabin and introduced myself. The extraordinary warmth and I must say delight that was discernible from his demeanor stood apart from the cold glances that I had experienced outside(mostly).  Over time our warm relation moved to an intellectual plane as I found Suhail sir to be of multi verse interests complimenting his wonderfully affectionate and astute persona. Poles apart, ideologically ,yet he helped me analyze why the so called liberals or seculars think the way they do and yes I found that there is a zealot inside that liberal shell, perhaps struggling to assert itself in an environment and circle of domination. I hope that shell is a bit shaken now J

Junaid sir

A perfect example of how a believer is supposed to deal with people.” If you have any problem never hesitate to ask one person i.e Junaid sir” as the saying goes in the college J Respect

Tabasum Sir

I like his spirit , his never say die attitude. He manages a quip, a smile out of even the most troubling times and issues. None will ever tire of his company. Must mention his inspiring dawah and relief  work – a multidimensional always smiling fighter kind of a person……That fighter bit is not meant but allegorically(incase)

Illyas Sahib

I had heard of Illyas kashmiri have u? if yes this Illyas from Kashmir is an exact opposite J jokes apart, another wonderful person I met in the college, ever ready to help, discuss and innovate solutions to all kinds of problems, the go to guy for any temporal issues(well don’t try him for spiritual issues u will be ruined J). From losing my car keys to extracting(and tempering J) attendance database he was always there to help me. Yet we used to be at each other’s throat as soon as Syria or Iran entered our realm. J

Nasir sir

He is a bureaucrat, a singer ,an educationist, a mathematician; what else above all he is a wonderful human being as young as ever. What I enjoy the most is when he talks about the past it is so eloquent that I feel enamored. When u discuss things with him he makes you feel so comfortable that it becomes hard to discern where he agrees and where he disagrees

Shahnawaz

A real fighter ,a man who has some real entrepreneurial talent. He has a multidimensional personality living a full life besides delving into social work. Yet can be a little bit overbearing at times

Nehvi The Great

I have not seen any one like him in my life. Be aware of him was the universal advice I got about him almost always but somehow I gave him a fair bit of trust. He is a self less person, does every task diligently even those tasks that he is not supposed to do. For example he is the only “cricketer”  from a batting side I have seen helping the fielding side retrieving the ball from the boundary more diligently than their own fielders.

Kanwaljeet

Adab sahab

The Mysterious MTG

Then there was this mysterious friend of mine let’s call him Mr M. His name starts with M and I used to call him M….. The great. He just got married. The first one from my immediate circle to take the gauntlet or to throw in the towel as they say. I am happy for him may be more than happy. We have or may be had a very strong personal relationship for I don’t know how people change or are supposed to change post marriage. Me and MTG we confided in each other and a lot of trust ; Yes am one of the surreptitious few who know the girl he married was his one yes one and only love while he managed to fool the world into making it an arranged affair. You see what a genius, this mysterious friend of mine; even his parents thought that he is marrying on their choice alone. Genius yes or wait you need to be more than a genius to pull it off; you need destiny ,luck ,fortitude or whatever you like to call it for it’s no mean a feat . Whatever be it, the thing that matters to me more is that MTG has achieved his only demand from life as he put it. But there is a dampener for me in all this so far hunky dory tale. You see , can you believe it, does it make any sense , how do I say it; You know what my genius friend has cut all contact with me post wedding. The last time we talked was the second day of his marriage when we our party of four college friends returned from his place. Is it weird or is it normal, see he is the first of my close friends to get hitched as they say so maybe that is the way it is, or may be that will be the way it will be ,that he has started a tradition for our circle or well may be it will depend on the girls that come or the bahus that come into our lives and homes . 

At times I get may be angry at him at times I try to contemplate may be he is angry at me too. I try hard to recapitulate my brief sojourn to Sopore for his wedding , maybe I did some mistake or maybe he did not like the gift that I gave him or may be the sherwani, he did not like the sherwani that me and Tawseef arranged or wait nothing MTG never bothered about such mundane things he always talked and even thought on a higher plane or at least made it out to be so for now we know what a master he is in making things out.

MTG  was always a mysterious figure. He would mostly avoid the classes in the college and books too I mean the books in the syllabus. He had immense dislike I think, for regimes and routines, for curricula and syllabi. The guy who did not read the topic before an exam but immediately after returning he would in all earnest start reading the topics that had been asked without caring for the next paper. He hardly ever failed , he hardly if ever scored well, he just passed the exams. And he did not care for he did not give a damn to the grades or the pointer. He used to enjoy his life in the hostel. ‘I wish I could spend a lifetime with you guys here ‘.

There were two things that kept him constant company his cough and cold and his Shahrukh khan like hairstyle- he was smart too – You could at times mistake him for the real Shahrukh if he had just woken you up after a fresh bath. ‘The bathroom and the balteen are now all yours to relish’. Yes after he had relished them for an hour or so as he usually did. Then came along what was to become his third constant companion the cigarettes, the gold flake cigarettes. He claimed that smoking had cured his constant zukaam and for some strange reason it in fact had had a positive effect on his . I never understood why ,to me the smoke should have choked his bronchi more but then he is our Mr mysterious the MTG.

You know in an engineering college placement time is festival time , everyone is looking to get placed and with fat packages, someone is revising his books, someone is browsing interview tips from the net, someone is getting a brand new suit for his interview, still others are getting their funky styles transformed into more somber ones. Everyone is excited, full of hopes wanting a share of his pie. And here I am looking frantically for my mysterious friend. He has suddenly disappeared on the day of placement. He did not want to get placed, he did not want to leave Kashmir, his family here, he did not even want to think so ,not to even take a chance with, so he just vanished from the hostel for the day. He is not even receiving anyone’s calls. ‘The number you are calling is not responding’. Call after all call, corridor after corridor, Bathroom after bathroom my search , our search yields no results- i.e positive ones for he is again as I said earlier a genius at hide and seek :at making things out.

But then he is a lovely friend to have one of my best. I shared all things about my life I could possibly share with any friend with him. He was such a nice friend to have full of love full of care. More loyal than the king , if I may take the liberty of using the phrase for he really was more concerned about my concerns than even I was, especially when it came to the matters of heart ’ dil ke mamle’ as they call it . His smoking stints would increase in frequency in direct proportion to my travails. He was and is such a lovely person to have as my friend and yes we agreed on almost everything we have the same world view more or less- a rarity for my oh yes our worldview. I can only wish he gets over his wedding hangover (if there is any such thing) soon or may be that I need to write an application to bhabi ji for that .

Poem of separation with english translation

Shakeel Shaheen

Zard Boseeda patu ke beech zeba nahi
Jab bahar aaye ham b muskura lengay

abhi halat e hijr mai kho jaanay do
gam kai aagaosh mai sar rakh ke so jaaney do
jo dard dil mai sambhal rakha hai
nainu ke duwar beh jaanay do
taareek sanaatay mai theek nai
jab sehr hojaye ham b muskura langay.............(not amidst dead fallen leaves

let spring usher i will smile

lemme get lost in pain of separation
lemme sleep in the lap of gloom
...
the melancholy beholden in my heart
let it flow by the trail of eyes

no not in the depths of darkness

wen dawn ushers i will smile)


Zard Boseeda patu ke beech zeba nahi
Jab bahar aaye ham b muskura lengay..........................
.........................................

abi to purnam aankhain hai pareshan dil hai
na khulwat mai sakoon na darr e mehfil hai
watan sai door jo furqat mai hu shaheen
is soorat muskurana kathin mushkil hai
chodo abi hamsai muskuraya nahi jaata
jab watan ko lotain to muskura laingay
......................................


zard boseeda patu ke beech zeba nahi
jab bahar aaye to ham b muskura laingay
(not amidst dead fallen leaves
let spring usher i will smile

eyes are wet and heart restless
solace not in solitude not in companionship
shaheen is away from home in separation
to smile now is hard too hard

no now no i cant smile now
wen i reach my land i will smile

..........................
not amidst dead fallen leaves
let spring usher i will smile)