Life and laughter

Kaberi Dutta Chatterjee's blog

canada doesn’t have maids

but it has a maid

My friend’s mom died last week. We still don’t know whether she died of natural causes or if Canada killed her.

My friend refuses to talk about it. But yes, the MAID had been suggested to the family.

MAID. Yes, Medical assistance in dying (MAID) is a process that allows someone who is found eligible to be able to receive assistance from a medical practitioner in ending their life. The federal Criminal Code of Canada permits this to take place only under very specific circumstances and rules. Anyone requesting this service must meet specific eligibility criteria to receive medical assistance in dying. Any medical practitioner who administers an assisted death to someone must satisfy certain safeguards first.

Only medical practitioners are permitted to conduct assessments and to provide medical assistance in dying. This can be a physician or a nurse practitioner, where provinces and territories allow.

My friend’s mom was in her 90s. Of course she was old. But was not sick. She recently had a heart attack because she fell down while cooking! Yes, she was cooking, singing, prancing about in the house all day, enjoying her life. She never once thought of her death.

But ever since she was admitted at the hospital, the doctors and nurses were all eager to kill her. She was old, and the State allows it. So it became paramount to the hospital that one more ‘”free bed” was occupied by an old patient, who could be better off as dead.

Canada has been killing patients. 31,664 people were killed by an injection from 2016-2021. Not all of them really begged to die.

Since healthcare is free in Canada, a lot of the decisions taken at the hospitals by doctors and nurses have to be accepted by the family members. One of the decisions is MAID. “Take it,or leave the bed”, is the attitude of the hospitals.

While six out of 10 Canadians support MAID in its current form, which allows those with a grievous and irremediable medical condition to apply for it, only three in ten Canadians support the idea of allowing patients to seek MAID purely based on mental illness, according to a new report by the Angus Reid Institute.

Some mental health experts agree that having the option of MAID would allow individuals experiencing suffering to die with dignity. I had even written a Bengali column in Indian Express on this.

But when it comes to ending the life of someone, because the person is in their late 80s or in their 90s, but may be having mild sufferings, is something that is happening in hospitals, as we can see. It does not take into account the opinion of the person whether they want to die or live. Their families are coerced into signing, and then they are killed in their sleep, or while unconscious. A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CRIME ACT!

Some psychiatrists and mental health doctors see the expansion of MAID to include those suffering from a mental illness as a potentially dangerous overreach, as we really don’t know if the patient wants to die at all.

Instead of the government putting in the work to provide the supports needed to improve their daily lives, MAID is making suicide more accessible to a vulnerable population. Of late, even Veterans and slightly disabled people are given the option of death, instead of the government trying to make their lives better.

This is the kind of country that Canada is becoming, more and more as it’s free healthcare is offering people to die instead of live. And MAID is killing thousands of people every year.

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2AuVQKpq0

Hello world!

Welcome to my blog!

I started connecting with people after I left them all. Before that I was a grumpy grouch, poring over the computer screen, making pages, running to office and running back home. After I left the country and settled in this peaceful land called Canada, and my basic survival needs were easily met, I relaxed and looked around. I found no one. I started panicking, and thanks to the internet, began to connect with friends, colleagues and enemies like never before.

Thankfully, behind the wall of the computer screen, I could be myself. My real self. Not hide behind a wall of grumpiness to protect myself from invisible hurt.

In this blog, I am posting stories of reality and laughter. Reality, which will hit you like cold water… which you won’t like; and laughter, which will put a smile to your face.

Some of these were published before the internet age. The yellowing newspaper clippings are all that I have of the articles which would have been soon lost if I didn’t start typing them furiously somewhere.

Very soon, I started having almost 200 visits on my blogs after each post. So I started writing more. My blog is also a mutiny against the staid media and publishing houses, which are hounded and bound by so many ethical/moral laws and word restraint before they publish something.

I am born free… therefore I write. :)
Enjoy!
(And please feel free to comment on anything)
Kaberi Dutta Chatterjee

  • Our gods are actually those future humans

    In other words, when our parents and astrologers told us that our destiny is pre-determined, they weren’t fibbing. This means that we have lived and lived over and over again to make the decisions that has already been made by our future selves. It makes sense of the word ‘reincarnation’. Like if you’ve not achieved something in this life, you will come back in next life, and then your future self will direct you to achieve that.

  • Are you still standing on your feet?

    I hope there are a few left on this platform who are staying above this frenzied #rammandir fanaticism that is gripping #india ? I hope there are a few who understand that, just like the wispy existence of God, #ram too is a wispy character, who probably never existed? And even if he did, I […]

  • Canada doesn’t have maids; but it has a MAID

    My friend’s mom died last week. We still don’t know whether she died of natural causes or if Canada killed her.

  • Was the Malaysian airlines abducted by orbs?

    This 15 min video could change your life! Is it fake? It could be. But in 2014 that would mean a very good CGI, as AI was not there. Think!I tried to make an observation video, taking all factors in. Those who are really into this, could go on Reddit for the ultimate analysis here#MH370 […]

  • Is “integrative pathy” the future of health?

    Does leech serve as a treatment? ChatGPT Yes, leeches can serve as a treatment in certain medical conditions. The use of leeches for therapeutic purposes is known as “hirudotherapy.” While it might sound unusual, this practice has been employed for centuries and continues to be used in modern medicine for specific situations. Leeches have natural anticoagulant and anesthetic properties in their saliva, making them useful in medical procedures that require blood flow improvement and reduction of clotting.

  • Are they coming via wormholes?

    Coming back to why I think this is some sort of a preparation of a “Contact”. With Covid completely breaking their egos to pieces, the Homo sapiens may have now attained some humility to meet someone much, much bigger than themselves. They could be now ready to meet their fellow galactic neighbors. Which is why, maybe in 2020 God has finally woken up from his frustrated slumber, that there is still hope for mankind, and has set up a conference…

  • Don’t torrent Neil Must Die, get it here

    Ripple effect: the continuing and spreading results of an event or action.

  • Deer

    (Snatched this write-up from Facebook, written by my son, Aneesh Chatterjee, some 10 years back, when he was in High School. He is too embarrassed to share this now, so I have hijacked the article. Only because this reinstated the sense of nothingness in me, and feel you should feel it too. Some articles don’t […]

  • আজি হায়! শতবর্ষ পরে

    আজি হায়, শতবর্ষ পরে নব বসন্তের প্রভাতে দেখি বিষাদের হাহাকার ! চক্ষু মুদিয়া শুনতে পাই অভাগার ক্রন্দন । ধ্বংসের মরণলীলা সঙ্গে করে মানুষ দলিত করে ফুলদল নিষ্প্রাণ করে স্পন্দিত দেহ…. ©Copyright: Kaberi Dutta Chatterjee

  • Why do have to tolerate the monarchy, anymore?

    It’s the “reverence” mindset among people that these kings and queens had exploited for centuries and is still exploiting now. Imagine, the Brit taxpayers are paying S170 MILLION for this coronation!

  • গভীরে যাও (Dig Deeper)

    আমার এই কবিতার সংকলন সেই কোন এক যুগের এক বিরহের কাহিনী। সেই বিরহকে জয় করার কাহিনী। এখানে-সেখানে ছড়ানো সেই কবিতার মলিন পৃষ্ঠাগুলো দেখি আমার মুখাপেক্ষী হয়ে তাকিয়ে আছে বছরের পর বছর ধরে। তিন বার বাড়ি বদল, দেশ বদলের সময়ে স্যুটকেসের কোনো এক কোণায় কবিতাগুলো ভরে নিয়ে চলেছি। ফেলতে পারিনি কোনদিনই সেই হৃদয়াঘাতের ১৯৮৬-র রব। যত্তসব!

  • Is the steady population growth coming to an end?

    I have hand-picked four factors to understand why the world population is slowing down. And the hands of Nature is at its best which is set to resurrect the tipping human balance on Earth.

  • ‘Neil Must Die’ in India

    Guess what! You can get print copies of my first novel, Neil Must Die, from India straight now, at an unbelievable low price!

  • May Day! May Day!

    We fall asleep on our bed in that ship and wake up each morning with a new hope that something new will happen.

  • Why and how did I move to Canada? ‘The behind the scene’ story.

    I apologize to my readers for resorting to electronic media for a greater audience. Fact is that, readers like you are fast receding from the world, leaving behind a very lazy set of spoon-fed audience. And the last of us are reading this.

  • What IS #ChatGPT? Is it a direct defiance to human abilities?

    ChatGPT, ChatGPT, the word or phrase is suddenly being tossed around the internet sphere like it’s another virus! My first instinct was: RUN! Then I paused and scrutinized it. I downloaded the app for a second, treating it as an untouchable. I asked it, “What is the English of the Bengali word “অভিমান” ? It […]

  • 4 bizarre reasons why Kolkata doesn’t have “work culture” !

    You’ll love this video if you are a true loyalist to the city. https://youtu.be/jqNtJzLFGrw Check out my new role as a YouTube Influencer. Please subscribe to my channels and share, if you love Kolkata as much as I do. From writing, to copy editing, to manuscript editing, to writing blogs… now into making vlogs, learning […]

  • Does Venus have life?

    On the popular Netflix TV show, Breaking Bad, the main character, Walter White, kills two people with it!

  • Nearing 60, and we don’t know if we are old!

    We wear orange pants — sometimes green. We also wear white saris. Sometimes tank-tops. Some of us are mom-in-laws; some are grandmoms already. Some of us have parents, most don’t. Some of us have husbands. Most don’t.

  • What are rituals and why are they there?

    Fasting generally detoxes the digestive system and is observed as a healthy option in all religions. But one may cheat on fasting, if you put it that way. Hence, when you bring in the factor of religion or “God watching you” factor, humans tend not to cheat. They know God is watching them wherever they are and whenever they are sneaking in food.

  • Why you shouldn’t watch #Kashmir Files

    Kashmir Files stumped me yesterday. I started watching the film thinking it to be another torture porn, another take on a gruesome genocide, sitting half-interested with the remote in my hands to change it whenever I am done with the violence. But I couldn’t. Instead, I stopped multi-tasking with the phone in my hands and […]

  • I am not an author

    In 2014 I saved a person from committing suicide in a village in India. Everyone knows about this. He is an exceptionally intelligent and qualified guy who got fed-up with the system, not being able to get into any jobs, and wrote on Facebook that he was committing suicide. I first tried to talk him out of it, then, after a sleepless night of not being able to reach him, I traced down his location and sent the cops to…

  • Now we see them!

    We can no longer toss the concept away as a figment of some crackpot’s imagination. We are now seeing them. Perfectly sane US air-force pilots and navy personnel have been speaking about them extensively and now Australia’s 60 minutes has an entire episode devoted to them. (You can read more in my book, WTF I Found […]

  • How did I survive as an immigrant in Canada? The Great Canadian Experience

    In this podcast I will address the Elephant in the room: How did I survive as an immigrant in Canada, and why did I come to Canada in the first place?  And how did I survive without the mandatory 3 must dos: 1) Work in a call center 2) Drive 3) Buy a house

  • Can consciousness be uploaded?… Is Shiva really an alien?

    Though we know the birth and death story of almost all religious ‘sons of God’, as Muhammed, Jesus, Buddha and Krishna, we do not know anything about Shiva’s birth, or death. Why so?

  • What can you expect from 2022?

    2021 seemed just a sequel to 2020. So now, how do we say, Have a great 2022? Or shall we say, “Welcome 2022, we are ready for you!” I don’t mince my words.

  • Are you a 5th dimensional being? Achieve it NOW!

    According to various self-realizing websites, you can actually attain being in the 5th dimension state on your own. I mean, you need no government regulations for it. I even took a quiz, and I found I was in higher 4th dimension, and I could contact those people (on the website) to help me attain the 5th dimension level. Wow!

  • How did Hetal Parekh’s friends feel about Dhananjoy?

    This is the 3rd and final leg of the Dhananjoy Chatterjee hanging case, which started with my solo podcast about how I was asked to attend the hanging. Please check that out among the episodes. In this podcast, my guest is Moumita De Das, the Assistant Professor, School of media and communications, at Adamas University. Why is she here? Today we are going into that depths of hell once more to reiterate exactly what happened during the execution of Dhananjoy…

  • Was media desensitized while covering Dhananjoy’s case?

    Meet Jaideep Mazumder, my ex-colleague, who had witnessed the family’s turmoil LIVE! He was there near the family when Dhananjoy was hanged on August 14, 2004.

  • On my son’s insistence, I started this podcast

    In this podcast, I had to go down a rabbit-hole so dark, that I shudder to think of it now.

  • Will AI surpass the human mind?

    You will be shocked to find that this smiling face does not exist at all! It is created by AI, or artificial intelligence. 

  • Are Daily Horoscope in newspapers all hogwash?

    Not all, they are just a probable, generalized zodiac signs activities based on the planetary movem

  • Why do we look for God?

    Of UFO’s I am even now a gleeful believer. The other day I found Elon Musk’s 3-D rendered ‘Ticket to Mars’ on Instagram, and was tempted to click on it. But it was a one-way ticket, and cost $500,000! (Also, I have claustrophobia. I won’t be able to travel in a rocket.)

  • Ganpati Bappa Moriyah!

    Somewhere down the ages, calendar artists could not understand what this other creature was, and drew an elephant’s face. The lore talks about how the ‘gana’s had limbs without bones. In the land of the Hindus, a limb without bones meant an elephant trunk, so artists made it into an elephant head. Hence, the god with a head that looks like an elephant, is actually called Ganapati, Ganesha, or Vinayaka. You will notice that he is not called Gajapati (Gaja…

  • God and parallel universe in Islam

    ‘Jinn’ is an Arabic term used in the Qur’an to describe beings that live beyond our perception. As some literary scholar point out, the term is popularly attributed to “genies” or “demons”, when its actual meaning has a far wider implication than that. The term Jinn is derived from the Arabic verb ‘janna’, which is best described as something that is “veiled from sight” and “can thus be applicable to all kinds of invisible beings or forces”. The fact that…

  • Where do we go after we die?

    Do we go into a parallel universe? Almost everyone wants to know what will happen to them after they die. If there are multiverses, is it possible that we die here on earth and get reincarnated in some other universe? Exciting! It is always exciting to know what happens to us when we die. While […]

  • Facebook Live Book Reading of WTF! I Found God

    Thanks for all those who already downloaded the ebook and purchased the print book to hold this in their hands. FYI: The ebook is on a FREE Giveaway from July 26 to July 30. Please feel free to download it now. You can watch the Facebook live here

  • WTF! I found God

    Where do you think God was when Covid-19 struck and annihilated humanity? The Voyager 1, NASA, has sped way past the Solar System, and found no bearded figure in white robes. So, where is God? Let me know your thoughts.

  • Where is her home?

    A recent post on Facebook churned up the swept-under-the-carpet emotions for me. In this viral video, an Indian married woman’s daughter asks her, “Ma, which is your home?” Whenever she tries to believe that her in-laws’ home is her own, she is categorically reminded that this is not her father’s house where she could do […]

  • গভীরে যাও

    এই লেখা অতলান্তিসে হারিয়ে যাওয়া যুগের একটা দলিল । এর সাথে এখনকার মিল খুবই সামান্য; হয়তো অনেক গভীরে । সেই গভীর অতলান্তিসে কারুর ঢোকার অধিকার নেই । আমারও নেই ।

  • SSR and the Dark Web, did it happen, really?

    While we are now totally sick and tired of this CBI-AIIMS hide-and-seek game that looks more fishy to me than the Dark Web itself

  • Be scared. Be very, very scared.

    Even giants like elephants do not kill for food. Predators like lions do not kill their own kith. But humans touch the lowest rung in cruelty and even kill unborn human fetus to eat. A shopkeeper here in Canada once told me, “Take these duck eggs, very nice, baby inside.” I had run away hearing that, but most people savor boiling such eggs with babies inside.

  • India now… for my friends who never visited it

    But, don’t be so charmed! Be alarmed! Be armed! India is treacherous to vulnerable newcomers. Those who are about to enter India with an idea that they will land in a fascinating and innocent land of yoga and peace, and may still get to see the “rope trick”, may be ‘roped’ into so many ‘tricks’ that…

  • Trudeaumania. Round 2

    “Justin Just Not Ready” coined by the Harper government, thus, has been proved vehemently untrue by Justin’s landslide victory. Justin is ready.

  • Will a toddler’s death unite the world?… Or annihilate it?

    Soon the influx is going to affect the entire world at large. One reacts only if one’s tail is on fire. And what millions of suffering people could not do, was done by this gut-wrenching photograph of the 3-year-old boy, Aylan Kurdi — of him washed ashore dead on a beach in Turkey. This photo actually set rolling a chain of reactions, such that now each country is under tremendous pressure of accepting refugees.

  • My husband’s last gift

    … He looked up at her and she appeared blurred. “I don’t feel well.’’ She knelt down and began caressing his face, “Obviously you don’t. I know you are my husband’s killer. I have been waiting for you all my life…..

  • Is Yoga Day really non-religious?

    On June 17 this year, the Ministry of AYUSH released a book titled “Yoga and Islam”. The official press release explicitly stated, “The book clearly indicates that yoga has nothing to do with religion and is universally accepted.” However, what happened in New Delhi and most of the other places in India and around the […]

  • Toronto Modi-Fied

    His dais turned to face the surrounding crowd leisurely, as the man himself rested on it as if he was sitting in his living room. “YOU have made India get recognized in Canada, not ME,” he said amid ear-splitting cheers.

  • My Great Escape

    My Great Escape By Aneesh Chatterjee I escaped. I escaped my home. I don’t even remember if I ever called it my own.  I wasn’t a victim; I was not oppressed. My life was average, normal, unnoticed, blessed.  Of course there were spines. Creatures, vile.  But who doesn’t deal with that? I did for a […]

  • Review of Neil Must Die

    Chatterjee has done a praise-worthy work by mixing together elements of thriller and romance with a fine dose of suspense as to which side the scale would tilt after a few pages. The author has intricately portrayed the key characters and the events which influence them. The book is a work of fiction but you find a certain sense of connect to the protagonists. The conflict plays out in your mind and you can easily relate it to epic romance…

  • Is this ‘me’ from a parallel universe?

    Is this ‘me’ from a parallel universe?

Six most appreciated Brutalist buildings

Brutalism was also influenced by the work of the Bauhaus school, which emphasized functionalism and simplicity in design.

  • Our gods are actually those future humans

    In other words, when our parents and astrologers told us that our destiny is pre-determined, they weren’t fibbing. This means that we have lived and lived over and over again to make the decisions that has already been made by our future selves. It makes sense of the word ‘reincarnation’. Like if you’ve not achieved…

    Our gods are actually those future humans

Brutalism in Architecture express the essential qualities of a building’s materials and structure in an honest and direct way. Architectural style emerged in mid-20s, based in raw and unadorned use of concrete.

Named by the French term béton raw, or raw concrete, Brutalism became popular in the post-WWII era, when the need for affordable housing and public buildings led to widespread use of concrete.