Death of a diabetic friend Rajendra Roy

Former Director of News, All India Radio, Rajendra Roy passed away Wednesday at a hospital in Vasundhra Ghaziabad. He was 79 and had been suffering from kidney ailment for some time. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. A jolly person who would cut jokes at his own cost and make others happy, Roy was extremely popular among his friends who in their tributes have poured their hearts out recalling his qualities of character.But some friends of Rajendra Roy feel that he 'killed' himself .  Roy was adamant that he wouldn't take allopathic medicines despite his sever diabetic and BP conditions. He would propagate that allopathic medicine system was a mafia where doctors and pharma companies looted common people. 

He would take simple food and do bhramari pranayam type exercises and urged friends to follow his example. He would post his lab tests to claim that he had completely controlled his sugar and cholestrol. He perhaps didn't know the implication of his very high level of HbA1c report that depicted his three monthly average level of sugar in the blood. It was 9.7 against desired 6.5. Friends cautioned him on this score and advised him to take allopathic medicines like Metformin along with his dietary regime. A friend quoted his doctor as saying that diabetes leaves a scar, minor or major, on a patient's kidneys everytime it crosses the normal mark. Roy wouldn't care. He hadn't been hospitalised in his life except for the last 25 days when diabetes led kidney problem aggravated and led to multi organ failure. In his death, perhaps, he paid a price for his anti medicine attitude. Roy was also a man of fixed ideas. He always proclaimed that Covid19 was a big fraud perpetrated by big pharma companies to loot people by creating a huge scare. He repeatedly offered himself to be admitted among severe Corona patients to prove his point. Nobody could accept such an offer.

Otherwise, Roy was a friend of friends. He fought several legal battles to defend the interest of his service colleagues even upto the Supreme Court. He was ever ready to help a friend who felt wronged in promotions or other issues.But he himself suffered a lot. Reeling under big work load, he broadcast a news item in the regional news bulletin from All India Radio Ranchi blaming the government for the sorry state of affairs due to paucity of staff at the Regional News Unit. He faced suspension and was later superceded in promotions. He had to fight long legal battles in Supreme Court to restore some of his due benefits.

Helping friends in legal matters free of cost became his full time hobby in retirement life. Originally from a remote area of Bihar, Roy joined the Indian Information Service in 1970. He mainly worked at Delhi, Patna, Bhopal and Ranchi and retired as Director of News from News Services Divison of All India Radio in 2004. Roy, lived his life on his own terms and brooked no injustice. But the death of this one time wrestler and racer athelete also leaves behind a moral: Don't ignore the role of modern medicines while adopting a simple lifestyle and exercises in dealing with the diabetes. Esoteric or magical cure of  the disease through  Totkas and kadha concoctions advice freely available in abundance on social media, may not help much.