The miraculous landing of the aircraft on ‘Hudson River’ by the experienced pilot saved so many lives – we all unconsciously applauded the pilot but watching the clip a few times also gave me a chill running down my spine. It brought to focus that when traveling by air this is indeed a distinct possibility.

Travel the ‘coach class’ (economy) on some of the airlines in India – e.g. Jet Airways and experience the discrimination on safety of passengers. For business class no problem they provide life jackets but if you travel coach class (economy) use your seat as flotation device if the aircraft lands on water. Although no such accidents have taken place in India and we pray nothing like this happens but imagine if it does happen and you are traveling Jet.

How safe are the cushion seats – surely only relatively safe when compared to Life Jackets. Is there a whistle with flotation device – No. With life- jackets you do have one to attract attention. On scale of 10 life jackets will score 10 but the cushion seats only 3 to 5. With the seats you can’t use your hands very much to move – you can only float around – you can’t paddle your way to safety if available unless an expert or if you have practice using it.
So next time you travel such an airline protest or if you are smarter bring a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) against such carriers.

The Oscar for the 39 minutes documentary - ‘Smile Pinki’ was overshadowed by the Oscars awarded to ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ For a second let us presume Slumdog Millionaire was not in reckoning for Oscar and only Smile Pinki had won the Oscars from India – imagine the media publicity and the good it would have done to the children suffering from Cleft Lip or cleft palate or both. Imagine how we would have gone gaga and perhaps the Indian Govt. itself may have got involved in this programme. ‘Smile Pinki’ attempts to throw light on the global problem (more in developing countries) of children suffering from Cleft Lip or cleft palate.

Why there are hardly any children borne with congnital defects in the developed countries - You may wonder why is this. Well the answer is simple – all pregnant women undergo screening ultrasound and if there is any defect found - the fetus is quicklly aborted - no question asked - irrespective of the magnitude of the defect. Nobody wants to raise children with defects in this world of designer babies. So many abortions – the free choice is obviously with parents – to abort or no. Wonder if the Vatican has ever looked at this issue or if there are any international guidelines for parents to follow. In developing world this is not the case – no routine screening ultrasound especially among the poor and hence higher incidence of congenital defects including – cleft lip/ palate etc (especially among the poor).

The stats from Smile Train programme on cleft lip make interesting reading -

• According to Smile Train statistics, greater than 4.7 million children belonging to developing countries live with unrepaired clefts in their upper lip/palate, a condition that is completely treatable

• In India 35,000 children are born each year with a cleft in their upper lip /palate ; more than half of these children do not get treatment simply because they are too poor

• Each of these affected children could be brought back to normal life, Pinki -style, with a simple 45 minutes surgery that would cost as little as Rs. 8000 ( approx. $250).

• Children with these deformities are isolated and traumatized. Many of them do not attend schools;some of them are even killed at birth or , even worse, abandoned

• As adults they fail to get regular jobs and are not in demand in the marriage market