My Experiments with Gandhi Marg by Dr. Virendra Singh

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Gandhi Marg or the path of Gandhi usually refers to the experiments that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did during his lifetime. He even used the word experiment to title his autobiography. Now the author of this book was inspired by a Katha or a story that he heard about Gandhi ji. He liked the process by which Gandhi ji ensured that he never repeats the same mistake. For this, he used a stepwise process.

my experiments with gandhi marg by Dr. Virendra Singh

Author Virendra Singh has simplified that process to a three-step process, where every time you commit a mistake, you accept it, you commit to not repeat it and you do a task to repent your mistake. Now what I admire about this book is that the author, who is a celebrated medical doctor, an award-winning Asthma specialist from Rajasthan, is that he did not just listen and admire. He put what touched his heart to practical use in his hospital.

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Giving ample examples he talks about various mistakes that happened in his hospital, by staff or by the relatives of the patients admitted. Every time the mistake was accepted and a repentance act was done. It could be giving up a favorite sweet or donating blood for serving the destitute patients who have no one to look after them. In many examples, he saw the person repenting realizing the humanity around them. In some cases, the behavior change had a long-term impact. There must have been some cases where people promised but did not do the act of repentance.

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What you admire is the effort to put into practice what is learned from a successful person. You begin from what you have admired, then fine-tune the process based on your own experience or ‘Anubhav’. You keep refining it in the mode of continuous improvement. There will be challenges on the way. The success rate will not be 100%, but then nowhere do we get that ever. Finally, he has shared his experiments and experiences in the form of this book – My experiments with Gandhi Marg.

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Most of the experiments mentioned in Gandhi Marg are from the period when the author was in charge of the hospital. This means that he operated from a position of power and people would tend to listen and agree with him more easily. The success rate of these experiments may not be the same without this position of power.

It is a small and easy-to-read book. While talking about human experiments, the book also introduces you to the working of hospitals, especially the large government hospitals. You realize that it is an organization like any other and has similar challenges coming from demanding schedules, young and brash resources and political pressures. You understand the constraints under which doctors work.

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The language of the book is very simple and extremely conversational. It is like the author is sitting with you and narrating incidents from his hospital. However, as a lay reader what distracted me was too many names and details of the hospital. I understand that the author may have wanted to appreciate the people he mentions, but as a reader, they seem like too much of details and distract the flow of reading. A good editor would have removed too many medical terminologies that are not really relevant to the subject of the book. A lot of incidents sound repetitive.

Overall, an inspiring book that would motivate you to try some experiments in life – be it from this book or elsewhere in life.

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