Is there a need for a paradigm shift in the way we look at rural India? India has it all,the best of brains,all the money,all the poverty and a disbalance in the distribution of opportunity ......and the wealth. Privellaged get most of the privellages and the poor..a few discarded favours. We have the best of brains coming out from our institutions....this incredible India has no dirth of people who can innovate and innovate more for personal survivol.Why can't rural India be made part of the projects of the curriculum of the creme dela creme of our society who pass out from the institutions like IITs,IIMs,etc...every year?They rack their brain..they do it for America...Why can't they be made to do it for India? The country has the resources in terms of money,man-power,brains...everything but it is hardly chanellised for the greater good. The heart of India lies in the villages...the answer does not lie in doling out subsidies......but in investing time,energy ,thought and...
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It was a good dinner with the staffs doing their bit,contributing graciously... The girls beautifully dancing the jharkhandi tribal dance to the rendition of nagpuri christian numbers that touches the heart. Beautiful place,beautiful people,beautiful faith,Incomparable savior!!
A little bit of sun-shine filtering through the winter cold, A little bit of extra time, a little extra grace .. ..in the moment. Is it Christmas yet? The curdling scream of the woman in labour piercing through the walls... Her vocals hammering my head at tandem-the anguished voice of my sister-in-law over the phone, Dare not picturise more. Are the gifts packed? Does everyone have a gift? Are the arrangements for dinner made? There is a phone-call, my heart misses a beat! My sister's reassuring voice says-all is well for now! Is it christmas yet?
Where is the time to grieve? Demands and endless demands of people wanting of your time. I want some time out, even from myself! Some time to understand my reaction, to nurse myself,to lick my wounds, or atleast to keep it out in the open and allow it to fester for a while. I want some moment to take a hard long look at myself, to tell myself it is allright.
Strange way to look at this advent season! I remember my sibling looking at us one lazy holiday afternoon sunning ourselves and remarking sardonically-'waiting for Godot huh!' Here we are in the hospital two doctors working our hearts out literally, me awaiting the inevitable....literally waiting for Godot!! There are the children preparing for the christmas play,churning out the same old thing they have been doing for the last God knows how many years. Christmas at home??I haven't been home for christmas for the last five years or so. Every one in the extended family seem to be sick.If not tragic, it almost looks sinister.So I am here supposed to lead the campus for the christmas celebrations wishing I could be anywhere but here! Got thoroughly harrased by the press the whole morning -gave them a good speech-pity them!I wouldn't know how I would have sounded after a sleepless night on duty but they were full of apology as they left ....awaiting the papers to see ...
‘Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel.He lived a very careful,cautious,responsible life….one that was exemplary…one that brought glory to God’s name’ Simeon was an ordinary man but the Word describes him as ‘just and devout’whom the spirit of the LORD had prompted ,would see the messiah before he was to die.The prophecy comes to fruction .Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the temple and Simeon is led by the Holy spirit to the temple as well.He has that deep joy of not only holding the messiah in his arms but also the honour of prophesying about the days to come…… 'Simeon was a man who was led by the Spirit of God, taught by the Word of God, and obedient to the will of God; and therefore he was privileged to see the salvation of God!' What a blessed man! What blessed words!!….what a tremendous prophecy..!! ‘Lord,now let You your servant depart in peace,according to your word: For my eyes have seen your salvation….(How many of us can truly say that?) A light to li...
Migration has been seen as a very important factor influencing the pattern of disease and its control in India.One gets to understand the reality of it’s influence when one becomes involved in the control programmes at the ground level.In Jharkhand,there are the seasonal migrants who are said to migrate to areas like brick kilns during the lean agricultural season for livelihood.It has been assumed that the majority of these labourers migrate due to desperate poverty. However,Alpa Shah from the department of Anthropology in Goldsmith College from the university of London has an interesting sociological take on the process. ‘Many see the brick kilns as a temporary space of freedom to escape problems back home, explore a new country, gain independence from parents’ NREGA’s hundred day’s work may not have the supreme solution to migration and disease control,although it certainly abets the problem to some extent.
Needed a comb for the journey-missed packing it-had some time in hand between trains,so made a quick trip to the mall in Gomti Nagar.There were designer shops gallore,almost felt embarrased near the driver.Predictably could not find a comb. The driver asked us what the mall was like-I found myself telling him 'it was useless-no essentials available-' what a joy it is to be in the company of the earthy,working class people....just being in their company makes one realise how superfluos our lives are......was talking to the other driver who drove us from Dehradun to torch-bearers as to whether he had been to Landour and he answered-Madam,if I go to visit places like Landour,what will my children eat?valid question although I had just meant in the course of his work!
Strange night, four patient's at the death's door were pulled out by the grace of God. Gun-shot injury where the bullet had gone in through the left jaw and was lodged in the left retroauricular region.Took it out with an LA.The patient is recovering well.Had never seen a bullet in my life before except on TV.These are election times and this is Palaumu.One can never be sure what to expect. Second was an accident ,where the patient had fallen from a bike.There was absolute fracture of the humerus and bleeding in the abdomen.Just the wife and a twelve year old for company,in shock.We arranged for blood and did an exploratory laparotomy.The patient is recovering well. Third was a case of placenta accreta who had bled so severely that she was again in shock-she just had 2gms of haemoglobin and both the male bystanders were dead drunk.Had to do an emergency hysterectomy at the middle of the night. Fourth is a commonplace enough ailment of rupture uterus which normally comes in ...
Barack Obama's speech while receiving the nobel was quite a speech.Where does he get his rhetorics from one wonders?It couldn't all be speech-writers ... Akshay is doing well. He has this fascinating phenomenon I've been reading about in a book(A leg to stand on-Oliver Sachs). He moves his feet off and on involuntarily-and often cannot ,when asked. Today his mother told me that he taps his feet predictably to two songs-'stuti aradhana upar jaati hai...' and 'yogya kewal tu.....' Brings to mind the verse in Isaiah 11,vs 2. 'The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will rest beside the kid, the calf and the lion cub will feed together and a little child will lead them.' It's amazing to watch how the lord heals the community it has called for a ministry even as he works his wonders amidst them. Praise Him !
Up,up and up the hill-I come from the hills and I almost had a vertigo and an altitude sickness.By the time I reached our colleagues home my ears had started ringing and I could barely manage to calm down my poor gut.Landour,here I come....having heard so much about the place from my colleagues...and even from a dear cousin who took such a fancy to the place that he plans to retire in those hills...It was like a dejavu..!I gulped the wonderful tea,played around with the fuzzy tom-cat,whose reaction was almost human!The journey killed the joy!The hospital was awkwardly placed in the middle of nowhere...reminded me of government hospices back home.. I even dread to enter.The market place was another tourist mall in a hill-station i am only too familiar with.Aren't you from Sikkim?Isn't Sikkim hilly?-asked someone.One would understand me better if I explained that going home was driving by the banks of the Teesta to the gentle curves of the Sikkim hills-there was no climbing to Ma...
Have heard enough and more about the city. Synonymous with culture in many ways,somehow never made it there. So I jumped at the chance to have a glimpse of the city while changing trains.There is the Lukhnowi andaaz,the Oudhi culture,the cuisine,the chikan ,the nawabs...the anglo imprint....it's endless....,what one reads about. The station saw me staring at plastic packets being used to transport tea....I asked the driver how this worked?it's apparently transferred to a cup before it is sipped...this was a novelty for me.The driver chuckled,my companion followed and I hollered,my antennae up... Next was the chikan shop...with it's endless provisions...was served tea(courtesy noted)and was badgered left,right and centre by an over-enthusiastic shop-keeper who knew his job well. The gate to Residency had a story to tell-we looked hard at the structure could almost imagine the era....1857...the structures....Cliff Richards,Englebert Humperdinck.....and the name Henry law...
Tribals in India ,as in most parts of the world, are forest dwellers.They have lived in the forest and subsisted on them for their livelihood .These forests were acquired by the forest departments without settling the issues of rights and the tribals became enchroachers in the forest they have lived on since time immemorial. Sanjay Patnoik in-‘ PESA,the Forest Right Act,and Tribal Rights in India.’ “In the continued harangue over national objectives and global needs, the question of the livelihood security of the forest dwellers has been given quiet burial-as if they belong to another planet. As we have seen, forests in India have always been valued for revenue profit, conservation, and as a genetic reservoir. They have never really been perceived or managed as a livelihood recourse. The fact that sustainable development of forests is possible with the harmonious blending of local, national, and global needs has never been acknowledged in the country. In what can be called th...
Little Akshay Kumar was brought to the hospital a month ago with complete paraplegia .For one so young,barely seven ,with retention of urine he had the forbearance of a child who has seen more than his share of pain.He was literally crushed under the grain crusher.He had injury and bleeding in the abdomen for which he had an emergency laparotomy –he survived the surgery but no one could do anything about his spine.They came to me in the emergency ,parents in that broken state …..Akshay was their only child. I looked into the reversible and consulted a spine surgeon in Vellore who gave the verdict,no intervention could be done and one could not predict the prognosis.How do you explain such a prognosis to a mother of a child in such distress.You teach them what life has taught you during such crisis and hope fervently that somehow they catch on.They stayed in our hospital for a week.During their time we shared the gospel and taught the mother to pray. They decided to take the child ho...
Anyone travelling by Indian railways will wonder at the sincerity of the waiters in the pantry car.You hardly ,if ever, see them sitting casually.It defies simple Indian logic that a host of public sector employees should work their guts out for their salaries.I don’t deny the fact that there are public sector employees who are committed and do their work with sincerity but this is certainly not a norm.You even see the waiters trying to convince the passengers to order something.I had to get to the bottom of this.It could very well hold the key to a major management issue. A little research gave me the answer.I believe the waiters have a nine percent haul for the sale of the day and no steady salary.Each individual takes home a packet of around three hundred rupees a day.That is a little more then a daily wage worker who earns half the money in the same time.When they don’t work their lot is less ,could even be naught. The driving factor here is the money…or rather livelihood ….as i...
This is a 48hrs journey to Delhi and back to attend the thanksgiving service for 40 years of EHA. A simple ceremony,inspiring … The journey back was in Tata-Muri ,jam-packed as usual. Two things that struck me from an observation of my colleague during the journey….so much for the mineral water bottles and the strict instructions to destroy it once it is used..the urchins seem to make a meal of it….they collect the bottle ,fill it with ice-cold water from the station water-coolers and sell it to the passengers in the general compartment for five rupees each-I hope the common sense behind it will take him or her to heights of business glory in the coming days. I found myself leaving the water-bottle with great care on my berth….hoping it catches the eye of the genious. The station at Daltonganj was flooded with village folks working on leaves,sewing them together to make leaf plates out of them….apparently they travel all the way from their village every night to make use of the e...
The winter's come in . So it seems-today is a bundh and I still have to make a quick trip to Delhi and back in a 48hours time.In JKD where the temperatures go up to 49 degrees in summer,my fingers have started freezing. DO I like winters ,I don't actually know.I guess it depends on the situation sorrounding it. Last several winters,I have been travelling all over and have been to colder countries,but the thrill of seeing new places ,having new experiences and the adrenalline that goes with it somehow leaves me unqualified to answer the simple question-do I like winters? I like the sun as much as the next person around i like the winter sun more,I like the snow and the feel of it.I get fascinated by the ice crystals during winters that drip down ,frozen from the hanging cliffs ,in a sub-zero temperature. I like the crackling fire wood in the fire-place and the warmth of that hot drink that warms the bones ,slowly bringing it to life..i like the warmth of the winter hearth w...
What a beautiful message in the chapel today from the most unlkely source-a meek staff nurse!It was restating the gospel we have heard a hundred times over but came forth with clarity from a pure heart-not an extra word,not an extra intonation just a pure simple message....crystal clear. How rejuvinating and beautiful it is to be in such a company even for a little while.
I got a mail from my sister the other day.She has just lost her mother-in-law.She was a pillar of strength for my sister and the family.She said one thing which struck me .She said she was still fragile!! Our chidhood was a protected one .I had not seen death in my family till I was in my late twenties and that was of a dear uncle,well-loved and truly missed.Life was one picnic with the greatest struggle being the exams one had to sit through and occasional skirmishes with friends in the boarding school. I literally grew up in Tumbagara! In Tumbagara,a small village with a hospital which I guess is all it can boast of even now,I learnt the ABCs of life....I saw life in all it's gory detail....lived it,lost it,found it and perhaps ...somewhere along the way it struck me that this was actually life .... ..if ten years ago my sister would have used the word 'fragile' to describe a state of mind it would have gone over my head...now I sort of understand. Fragile!,what a ...
I am just trying out my hands in putting photographs into my blog to see how it works!!
India was at the brink of becoming world champions in cricket (BCCI ranking)and predictably,has lost the series to Ricky Ponting's Australia.Now an australian player Shane Warne has put the blame squarely on Jharkhand's blue-eyed boy Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captainy. What's with Dhoni,a simple boy from a small town middle-class family sailed smoothely to captain the gentlemen's game with a lot of poise,and a definate level of cool-headedness and intelligence.We cannot really say India played badly.The players had their days! I remember when ,a few days after India lost the world cup(T-20),and there were a lot of flaks being thrown on the cricket team,Dhoni coolly sailed into Ranchi with a brand new H2 2009 Hummer with some of his team mates.My old mother wanted to know what the budge was all about,my brother was patiently explaining to my mother how the captain of the cricket team which had just lost the world-cup had bought a car worth Rs.one crore .This car appar...
A typical middle class lady wanted to enter my office.She actually asked for my permission to do so!She wanted to know if her husband could get a job of a surgeon in the hospital.He was apparently working in Gaya. I asked her what his qualification was and she proudly said ISC. She reiterated that he could do all the surgeries and would duely produce the certificates! Strange request this!!
I spent my 38th birthday doing the rounds of the government health institutes in the district of Latehar.The reason being to get permission for PHC visits for the nursing students as per their syllabus.I always get something out of these visits because there is so much about the Indian health system ,which is fascinating in it’s ability to improvise for short-sighted gains. The government has started this fascinating coupen system for below poverty line patients,the money is handed out to the poor antenatal mothers who access health facilities when they are in the family way.The doctor incharge of a PHC lamented that on one of his routine visits to one of the villages ,he asked the villagers why the children were not immunized and they were quick to respond that no money was being doled out for it so they would not bother. The government health centre has been equipped with expensive medicines.The villagers on the market day just walk into the out-patients routinely with vaguest of ...
There are a few lesson life teaches you that leaves an impact.I have a few junior doctors working with me,youngsters who have seen a lot less of life than I have.In these last few days, I often find myself taking my life lesson of the years out of my kitty and sharing with them.This was not so five years ago.My juniors were much more world-savvy than I am and were friends I literally grew up with.They used to label me 'naive' then, I wonder what they would think now-most of them have moved on in life and must have got savvier by dozen. The other day,I found myself giving my juniors a lesson from life I had learnt first hand ,as well as vicariously about patient management. Every now and then we get an over-anxious set of relatives and equally over anxious set of patients who literally leave you flaggerbasted.My juniors came to me to discuss one such patient.They clearly looked harassed.Ten years ago I would have put the lot in a slot but years have taught me that nine out of...
EHA celebrates it's spiritual week .The portion for the very first day was Leviticus 23.A call by God through Moses to celebrate the festivals of the Lord.What amazing lessons in learning to study the mind of the Lord.Every festival,with a clear-cut vision and an agenda ,a prophetic call to move forward with our heads directed towards Jerusalem,celebrating the festival of the pentecost as we march onwards to the feast of the trumpets.Right from the festival of the passover to the feast of the trumpets ,an intricate web of design placed by the creator ,a blueprint for every child of God ,Moses had asked for it.....it was given...it was given the exact blue-print...may God give us the clarity and the grace to fall in line with the agenda so that we can continue the journey till such time and be partakers in the coming feast of the trumpets.
Sheba,Andy ,Asha and Enoch were here for three days.Fiery people with a single track mind .Andy always bubbling to share the Word,the kids ready with their kitty of jokes and Sheba oh Sheba!I think it's because she is rather on the quiet side I always find myself talking non-stop with her!There were moments when I actually had a a jaw-ache.When I keep quiet she asks after my health and when I tell her I am resting my tongue she laughs away to glory.... It was good to have them here! I see a lot of things about myself ,I normally don't otherwise in the nitty-gritties of living everyday. Two days before their arrival while praying with the officers ,I was lead to pray "only what we do for christ and His kingdom will stand" and the entire time Andy's message went along those lines.
A pastor today was sharing about a little boy in the heart of the naxallite belt who saw the light and is working towards sharing ‘the Word ‘.A shy nine year old tribal boy sidled up to the pastor and started asking umpteen number of questions.His queries were taken up and dealt with each time the men and women of God entered the poverty-stricken village which lives under the fear of gun.At the age of thirteen he made a resolution to take time after his school to spread the word,He finishes his school work and walks three miles to another village to spread the word.He was a back-bencher and a tongue-tied fellow who ,the teacher says, is changed over-night.He spends time in prayer and as per the leading he moves out. He looks in the eye of the adults and individuals ,even the senior pastors are scared of ,and boldly preaches “those who live by gun will die by a gun”. Isaiah 9,vs 2. ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow o...
God’s hand The perfect hands , A beautiful craft , Beyond skill . Every contour,a work of art, Every line –a divine part, Perfect untouched,holy. I saw the hand of the savior, Deformed ,bleeding ,used,abused, Imperfect mark of the nail, The pain, the drops of scarlet….. The precious hands marred , My sin , a part – I belonged! I saw the hands of the risen christ, Ablaze in the wings of Glory, Resplendant in the halloed form, Throned in the most high, I saw the mark of the nail that’s mine In the hands of the King ,most Holy, This king is mine !This King is mine! My failures-a part of glory!
I am a good christian, That is what I have been , As far as I remember. I live my life packed with activities, I attend the church regularly, I work for a Christian organization, I have been involved in charity work , Yeah that’s what I do! I have a life!or do I?sometimes I wonder? I can pray!oh yes I can pray for hours and ends! Just ask the pastor-I pray the best prayers in the church! I sing,I make the right noises! Everyone looks up to me. Jesus of Nazereth?? -Who is he?? (Might not be so drastic but our lives read this way sometimes!mine does very often.)
Got a mail from a longtime colleague,more of a consultant from my PG days,Manoj Jacob.A friend of his had this call to fast and pray in all the states of india-he had done so in most states and now it was JKD he needed to pray for. He was on a meal and a cold drink during the day ,and a charpoy in the room where he can sit down and pray. He gave a talk in the chapel today. It was about looking up and at Jesus carefully ,to know him ,and about the call to be a disciple.
The story did not end there.The locals had their share of heartaches which precipitated towards the evening.Had a detatched look at the whole issue.Got a vague understanding of unfairness of it all.Decided to review the whole scenario.Have had to do some soul-searching,change the existant,and move forward. In the mean time decided to review the community's village health comittee's progress.The team is persistantly doing their bit against gigantic odds.They have been working on changing the reproductive child health status in the villages.Under normal circumstances,the RMP's(a synonym for quacks)have a phenomenal hold over the village health.They are at the doorsteps of the villages with their bag which contain the standard dexamethasone,Taxim ,gentamycin and IV fluids.They have an association which meet periodically to review the situation.They earn a minimum of Rs 500 per day which is much more lucrative than selling vegetables or mending shoes.Most of rural India, these ...
A body lay unclaimed in the mortuary.The lady had died of tuberculosis and the relatives had abandoned the dead body.The hospital authorities(read us)had to seek permission before we could dispose it off.After lodging a formal complaint in the local police station ,a staff was sent off to the village with a police personal .The village was deep in the jungle,no roads,no nothing and the entire family was dead drunk,drowned in alcohol.They were not fit for conversation. The staff were told to dispose off the body in the hospital premises. This is Jharkhand for you ,more han 80% of the population live in the villages steeped in alcohol,poverty,superstition......endless bondages. Where does the process to liberate them start??
There has been a lot of news in the recent past highlighting the Gandhi scions apparent philia towards the aam aadmi.He visited JKD and the latest breaking news in Times Now read 'Rahul Gandhi visits Francis Induvar's family in Ranchi'. A day before there was another news item in the Times Now site about how a cab driver who had driven RG to the airport received all the attention and how he was the only person in the cab he spoke to,how he thanked the driver personally for driving him to the air-port,etc.... What makes this aam aadmi so special??I guess it is this very air of innocence and perhaps an unawareness of their worth which takes them to a different league.They are the 'salt of the earth'.Just being with them must be so very refreshing after inter-acting with layers and layers of slimy politicians on a one upmanship game. I remember the look on Rajiv Gandhi's face when he was with the aam aadmi before the indian politics actually got to him.Just after I...
I happened to be going through an old copy of India today(Feb 2006 issue)-an article by Jaideep Sahni ,the author of the movie 'Bunty aur Babli'struck a chord. He categorises India into three parts then.India A,India B and India C.India A were the big city public school babas,India B were the small town kids and India C were the types who were seen dancing tribal dances with Indira Gandhi on doordarshan and famine,farmer's suicide and poverty were their lot. He talks about the times when India A types used to be bullied to high heavens when they came to small town campus'.He talks about how Michael Jackson cascates used to be burried deep into their pant pocket's and the moment they opened their mouth they would be Ya Ya ed cutting all their hipness to shreds! Times changed.Suddenly the small towns loks were an aggressive lot ,moving into the bigger cities ,working hard and going for the kill.It didn't matter suddenly that your boss had never listened to Michael...
Hot,hot winds of change are blowing through this land.There are noises and more noises!Government has resolved to go all out on the offensive against the maoists.It is a tough stance no doubt and a sensitive one as well.A police officer,Francis Induvar was abducted from a market place in Ranchi and was beheaded in cold blood. The relevant question today is-Who are the Maoists? and whose interests are they protecting? In the cross-fire between the authorities and the red rhetorics ,will the poor and the tribals,get crushed as usual???
Effortless flight, In a clear blue sky, Up,up,up,and up. Over the landscape,rivers,hills and plain, Over the eternal sun-shine and rain. swooping,skirting, skipping ,pecking, discovering,floating, skirmishing,flirting , just enjoying….. then gently disappearing……
Pramila Kacchap topped the ANM results and came out second in Mid-India board.This girl was sharing how the lord has been faithful in providing for her family of five on her father’s meager salary of two thousand rupees a month.Today during the bible studies she gave her testimony .She belongs to a hindu background in a predominantly Hindu community.Her family converted ,her father’s siblings did not.The village ostracized her family and deprived them of their ancestral properties.The father with five children and a low-income job was pressurized in every which ways to deny his faith.The family persisted and prayed their way through all the persecutions-today her family stands as a testimony of God’s goodness and grace.The very brother’s who had denied them their birthright have come back to offer them the land unable to manage on their own.Pramila has grown into a fine nurse ,more so because she is filled with gratitude towards God’s goodness and grace.
The rhythem of the art Dancing to the rhythem of the heart, In serendipidity, The world has a name for it- They call it the master-piece. I call it the Master’s piece- Chanced upon by senses Tuned to the rhythem…… The beauty,edification and the very lilt.. Paying tribute to the Maestro From whom all of creation flows.
This is my hundreth blog and what do I write on? Joining back NJH is like putting my feet on the clouds-floating and drifting it seems.There is my work and perhaps the ministry of the mantle of leadership entrusted on me and yet time and again I wonder what I am doing here?Is this my life's calling I wonder because there still is a restlessness burried deep within .It surfaces now and then. 'One day at a time' has been my motto-most times when I have had my time with God I am fine but there are good days and bad.Sometimes the workload and the demands to be met...just keep piling on and drains the life out of me....it is in those times ,I start wondering! Reading ,yes reading !it is so hard to lay our hands on a good book now a days!Scouring through the bookshops one finds heaps and heaps of books ,put one on top of the other, most of which will qualify as the so-called 'time-pass' material.Even as I drag my feet to the bookshops I literally have to send a prayer up ...
Grace has been the fruit of the spirit that has been on my mind the whole month-I was talking to a group of nursing students barely past their sixteenth year in the morning session of their bible studies.These are young kids from diverse background ,some catholics,some animists,a few protestants like myself.Even as they join the nursing school fresh from their villages one can often visualize bondages of various kinds reflected on their faces. As they grow into the course and settle down they start looking wholesome ,neat and peaceful.These were the first years who had finished a year in the school.I wondered what they understood about this ‘fruit of the spirit’. One of them shared about how God’s grace had enabled their father with a meager salary of two thousand rupees a month to educate and bring up a sturdy family of five children.She being the last but one ,was in the nursing course.The next kid broke down even as she shared about how God in His grace had ...
The journey to NJH was an extended affair.I had a stop in Kolkotta-had a mind to visit the MOC but got lost in the nitty-gritties of Kolkotta -must have walked past Flurries for the sixth time .The area was flooded with a group of bank employees who were protesting against 'I don't know what' but slogans were amusing to listen to .One person reads out a page full of facts in benglish and a crowd repeats just the last word-it's real tough on the listener with the creaky mike,et al... Only in Bengal will one find the slogan shouter sing songs like 'Bee shall obercoammm 'with a straight face-for a cause like pay-hike or whatever! Sitting in the out-patients in Vellore one catches up very quickly on the fact that an average person from that area is indeed special.They don't have simple chest-pain-they have myocardial infarction!They don't have discomfort in their tummies ,they have Bhee coli and some Dr.Mukherjee ,the Dr Mukherjee from Howrah is supposed to ...
Today I decided to help the worker's seperate the cardomom fruits from the pod.It can be a pretty meditative process.Each pod has around thirty fruits in them-it's a perfect division of labour as baskets are filled and they are taken away for air-drying before they go into a drier.One lady who actually is involved in the process is a case of chronic depression and a destitute but as she gets to work, the concentration is so intense and focussed I wondered if it was actually healing her. My dad was overjoyed to see me take interest and took me through the entire process-theoretically as well as practically,giving me intricate tips which only experience brings with it. I don't really know when these practical tips will come to use !- The process itself was restful and healing.
My cousin's been talking to me about writing randomly so here i am without an agenda in hand typing away on my pc .... It's been a day of hectic activity and concern ,seeing a dear aunt indisposed for bit and a wrecking head-ache that had descended on me on stepping into the portals of Ganktok ,the capital.My sister had some knick-knacks to buy and I had to cart it to Mangan in a hired car with the driver for company who talked non-stop about God knows what?I could just about be polite. The moment I stepped into Mangan ,the ache was gone.My brother had a great time making cracks about my very devout christian uncle's home!Even my uncle had a good laugh over it. On reaching home the news about Rajashekharan's disappearance seemed to have caught eveyone's attention.My brother-in- law ,a journalist was in the office doing over-time covering the news bit by bit. My little neice in Delhi, who is barely ten, is going out of town for the first time for an excursion with he...
Trying hard to recollect a poem I read long ago -cannot recall the writer or the poem exactly.....hopefully my rusty brain will catch up sometime... I am no Mary to sit quietly at your feet and dream, I am she , who runs wild and fleet, I am the Magdalene How do I then love you lord? Supreme. To the extreme- like the Magdalene!
I t's Christ alone in majesty, It's Christ alone in purity, It's Christ alone in righteousness, In Christ alone ,I clearly see, It begins with Him to eternity... It flows from Him,the grace gently, It's Christ and Christ and Christ only, The measure,the scale- and the Christ in me!.
Travelled to Kalimpong for the week-end.I remember visiting the place when I was six.Had been there for an interview in SJC and to meet up with my sibling who was in the boarding school then.Allthough a stone's throw away from my state, never got around to climbing the hill to visit the place again. There was a surpressed air of anticipation and excitement as we climbed and did the rounds of the multiple hills-it almost felt like Mandrake's xanadu.The town on the hill-top seemed to be a meek town caught somewhere in a time warp.It had it's old world charm in parts-very much Kalimpongish!!-nothing new or shiny about the place-the baker's shop selling the gigantic buns,little wooden houses with tiny gardens,dirty-market place,the famous mela ground where the 15th august celebration is supposed to be second to none in India and ofcourse the very old Gompus and their momos.A typically company humour doing the rounds during the gorkhaland agitation went something like this-,...
I remember one of my friends commenting breezily-Sikkimese people are ritualistic .Born in a christian family and being brought up away from most of these rituals I wondered if he was right. Going through several works of research done by contemparary journalists on the origin and the rituals of Sikkim ,I realised he had got it right and yet there were several admirable things to be learnt from this land of rituals. 1) Budhism was brought to Sikkim by Guru Padhmasambhava(budhists believe him to be a reincarnation of Gautama Budha, born in a lotus ).He is said to have addressed Sikkim as 'Bayul Demazong'-'a hidden land of sacred treasures'.(a hidden life of sacred treasures!- blessing people and the land !-if internalised how powerfull!) 2)There is this common act of offering traditional scarves as a mark of respect on different occasions-this white scarf known as khada is supposed to be a mark of intent which says I honour you with the purity of flower and yet with the ...
Mangan is getting ready to celebrate the 15th of August. My cousin an ex-beaurocrat observes rather sardonically-why does this place celebrate the occasion with such pomp?It's bigger than any festival.There are series of school putting up their annual performances ,there is the football tournament which starts a fortnight ahead.This year the stars of the tournament are couple of black players from clubs in Kolkotta who are representing some of the teams. Every year we observe with increasing sense of amusement and wonder the workers ask for allowance to stitch new clothes for the occasion as well as ask for leave to attend the programmes. Everyone is involved.There are the local gentries pushing each other beyond the rules of the game putting their best foot forward in the football and the basketball matches .We remember with a lot of fondness our dad and mom playing these matches when we were kids.Dad's nearing eighty but he doesn't miss the matches even now. There is my ...
It’s good to be home.The familiar sounds of the morning and my mother’s voice excitedly waking us up with a warm cup of tea to be a part of the moment,the solar eclipse.My brother’s been all over the compound looking for the best view of the thing to come.Dad’s busy with his chicken even this early in the morning.Sherry,the tibetain apso looking like my puppy Bead in the foopets ,after a much needed hair-cut ,tilts his head ,whines and cuddles up to me.Monu,my mom’s girl Friday’s daughter is cooing in her crib.’Here it is’- my mom declares,beyond the over-cast skies suddenly it is night again.There is silence ,absolute silence , the nature is itself paying homage to this once in a life-time affair. This is my mom ,always involved with wonder in every occasion in our lives.She was describing the two cobras who had been walking the grounds.They have been apparently flourishing and have become so sure of themselves that they walk around the garden...
Mangan,-'Mon'-'gaon' -,which means a place where people meet or a place where you should not be when a war strikes,is a quaint little town in Sikkim and yet so dear to many of our hearts.It's placed strategically in a valley between mountain and hills.This town ,where most people know each other and yet now when I go home I am a stranger amidst the kids who have grown up and the migrants who have settled in. Just as you enter Mangan ,down below in the valley there is a red-roofed elephantine house that has always made many of our hearts beat faster,it was the place where I was born,it was the country homestead where all our town cousins used to congregate during the holidays-oh what memories I have of it!It was this place where all of us siblings wove our fantasies around the large antique mirror that hung on the wall-told each other fancy stories to dozen,hero-worshipped our elder sister,wrote soppy but innocent letters to our mother who was away for a short-while...
Saw MJ's funeral on TV.Felt sad,sad,sad.Especially the final moment when they picked up the casket to exit-it felt like the show was over and the final curtains were down. The funeral itself was touching made more so by so many christian songs sung.MJ on the retrospect, comes across as an extremely vulnerable and a fragile personality inspite of the heights of success he attained .When he was around-he seemed to be wacko-jacko,making news but barely registering in the recent past although he seemed to be everywhere during the 'thriller' days.His music was something else though.In his death he seems to be larger than life-farewell MJ-you packed quite a punch in life as in death!
I can see Jodie Foster mouth the words-You never recover!!you just become someone else- this is a line from a hollywood flick-it is not the bible. Do we actually recover from the incidents and accidents in our lives I wonder? Life with all our tragedies and pain, Life with all the sun-shine and rain. How can something that has been only so real in our lives suddenly go back to being never was? Does time heal?Is healing getting back to the absolute whole or is it just getting back a sense of balance? Healing, assessed physically(def), is the process by which the cells in the body regenerate and repair to reduce the size of a damaged or nechrotic area. This does not sound absolute does it? Healing incorporates both the removal of necrotic tissue (demolition)-this might be easy, and the replacement of this tissue. The replacement can happen in two ways: by regeneration: the necrotic cells are replaced by the same tissue as was originally there-Do tissues ever remain the same??sounds impos...
What a strange day it has been!One of our senior colleagues said adieu to the world .Loads and loads of cholera patients flooded the hospital.We had a farewell party for one of our oldest staffs. Decided today to film our own documentaries for advocacy and IEC.Felt happy after the decision was made.Received the TB Alert's 10th anniversary magazine-saw pictures of old timers all over.....life goes on...tomorrow is another day!
One of the responsiilties I hold is in the public-private sector of RNTCP.As a boost to the existant programme one of the donor agencies have donated a van inorder to dissipate information to the public on TB.I have been desperately trying to knock all doors to lay my hands on a decent movie on tubercculosis inorder to use it for IEC activities and I draw a complete blank from every corner.The RNTCP in it's web-site talks about all sorts of TB material available but we find a gap.There are no movies in the CTC as well. Hello!why put up exotic promises in the web-site when we have no intention of following it up with action??Besides what are we really doing ?We are really doing the government's job for them with no help whatsoever from them. The new NGO scheme came into practise from the October of last year but the government is still sitting on it without any MOUs being signed. RNTCP used to be a department that actually used to work in Palamu and within a span of one year it...
The lady was in her mid-twenties-a tribal from a place called Mahuadar.Mahua-is a fruit from which the local beer is brewed and dar is a hill.The place is predominantly a mixture of catholics,protestants with some animists.It's famous for it's waterfalls amongst the locals-it's a picnic spot.They also have a convent cum a clinic there-sick patients are often reffered to our hospital. This lady obviously had an acute abdominal pathology which needed immediate exploration.They had come to us as a last resort .She had bled into the abdomen with symptoms of what looked like a ruptured ectopic pregnancy-it's when the baby is concieved in places other then the womb.She had lost a lot of blood,her haemoglobin was down to 2 gm%.I called Dulari our nurse anaesthetist-she agreed to give anaesthesia if two pints of blood could be arranged. They had no donors but somehow the blood was arranged and the case posted. I had never done a laparotomy before but after opening umpteen numbe...
A halpless senior citizen walks into the OPD with a classical complaint of aches and pains all over.She has apparently been to the local ojha and has been told that a thief has entered her spine and needs to be chased out.How? I asked.She says it can be done in two ways-by kicking the back-side or by blowing some mantras into the spine-I thought the ojha sure had a sense of humour. In the mean-time there is a silent revolution going on through the net,signature campaigns,etc to support Dr Binayak Sen’s cause.There are two sides to every story –so I understand, from the discussions from different forums,write-ups and opinions.I fully sympathise with Dr.Sen in the matter .I don’t agree with the naxal philosophy of declaring war against the state.I find it painful that in this day and age in India- voices of reason ,of concern ,voices that support the cause of the weak can be clamped down by state machinaries.Who is Dr.Binayak Sen ?What is his case?The government of India owes it’s citize...
The lights in Palamu have been hijacked-I literally mean that.I believe a group of MCC cadres actually walked up to the power house from where our lights are supplied and have locked it .They have demanded guns AK-47 in place of electricity.The best part is that the only places where the power is supplied from the point is, our hospital and the town of Satbarwa. So the nights are literally spent walking around like a zombie in the campus looking for a drift of stray gale -or sleeping under the stars in the stone benches chatting with Sona Devi about the mosquitoes,the heat,all in dehati-which I love the sound of. Wow!even as I write this I can hear the skies tear apart allowing a torrent of Norwesters through.Come the baisakhi,there is a rush for green mangoes all over the campus.You find them in all sizes,the mangoes and the people who run for them.They make a cool drink to beat the heat with it and it is just so delicious.The green mangoes have to be roasted over the firewood to get ...
A badly mucked up case of ruptured uterus came in from Chattarpur.The lady was in serious distress, the foetal product seemed to be in the abdominal cavity.There was no foetal heart sound.An emergency call was given for anaesthesia and the case posted.On opening the abdomen there was blood all over ,the placenta was outside the ruptured uterus and the baby,still and lifeless -half in and half out but within the gestational-sac.I extracted the baby,no breathing,no heart-beat but suddenly it coughed.The anaesthetist and the floor nurse pounced on the baby and with vigourous resuscitation the baby was soon pink and breathing on it’s own.It was a strange experience,but for the grace of God and the thin membrane which had protected the baby he would have been just another statistic .He was the first male offspring after two female children-they had apparently been to the local dai,who had done everything from a massage to injecting pitrocin to speed up the delivary and ensure the complicati...
The quintessential dawn, Tip-toeing past the dark of the night, Unvealing ,reverent, eternal moment waiting and watching the genteel of the creation enjoy the morn. Chirping,singing,hooting, Dripping,sparkling, Cleansing, Resting – Is this Eden?
I have been fascinated by the naxal movement due to the sheer drama that is enacted in and around Palaumu often-times.Initially when I started working in Palaumu,every body attributed everything to the naxals.It was ‘Dr Jee ,don’t venture out so early in the morning(walks),it’s dangerous out-side.Do not go to the villages,you never know when they will attack-don’t go for field visits…it used to go on and on….I shared it with the founder missionary and he laughed it off-there are no naxals around.He had worked in that area in the sixties and had been involved with the villages around-attending weddings,going hunting,fishing,sitting on the village porch talking to the villagers in the evenings ….When had the change come?Now when I say I work in Palumu,people think we walk around with guns. As you tend to settle down, it all becomes a part of your life and you tend to live the gap between the fear and the event. The naxal movement was started on certain principles but over the years,the ...
I sit in the out-patient on a light Wednesday afternoon and the patients attribute the thin attendance to the ‘lagan’ .Lagan is the season of wedding in the area.All the private vehicles are booked ,if not for the wedding then certainly for the elections and we also have the added excitement of the anti-establishment groups trying to make their presence felt in the area. Elections,are an occasion in the family.We have the whole clan descending on the family bastion Mangan to caste their ballot.Every member with a mind of their own,even the spouses are uninformed as to which button their partner has pressed behind the curtain.However,it is an occasion to celebrate so there are hosts of dinners in different houses everyday for the week.It’s one of the two regular occasions when the family gets together. My brother,a seismologist had a very weird answer for the candidate who came to our house to ask for vote.He told the person very seriously that he would vote for whichever party his moth...
You paint life's picture With myriads of emotion. You started work With an object in mind. Unaware, unknowingly You've portrayed your persona In colours of feeling And sentiments That filtered throughYour mind While you were at work. That extra stroke . . .. . . that excess shade Reeks of you As the words you speak Don't And perhaps will never do. Chering Tenzing Copyright ©2009 Chering Tenzing
Alone by: Chering Choden Tenzing I stand alone here amidst cannon balls and gunshots that whizz past me. screams that defy reason and people unable to see. "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Oh lord why did you have compassion on me??? Copyright ©2009 Chering Choden Tenzing
Eversince I have come to Jharkhand ,I have been in the middle of an exciting poutpourie of events ,sometimes too stark even to entertain for too long.I come from Sikkim where a single murder gets discussed for generations,the pot-boiler for the season would be a group of children entering a shop at an odd hour to do away with the hard-boiled sweets from the vendors. Here in Palamu.every other day , some kind of anti-social activity goes on.There are several takes to it-that is what I found out over the years and so now I take special pains to get an opinion from everyone I come across,whether it be the poor villager who walks into the hospital, our drivers or my maid and then there is the local paper which has it’s own take –the TV channels seldom give us the in-depth ground reality-it’s just ‘bomb blast in Chiaki railway station in Dto by the naxals’,etc. Take for instance the now existent indefinite bundh in Palamu.Nothing moves when there is a naxal bundh here. Why was there a call ...
It's election time in India-you listen to the news and you shudder to think what kind of governance we'll be looking at in a month's time!Everyone predicts a hung parliament-everyone is making the wrong type of noises-noone sounds sane anymore. Indian democracy-the largest democracy but must be the maddest too. Here in JKD,the place is in the news for sure,albeit for all wrong reasons.My school friend in Doha sends a message asking about my well-being-she is relatively new to the idea of my being in the middle of all the chaos. The district has been in a state of freeze for a month now. My heart-felt prayer for the moment is -'Oh lord,please restore some kind of sanity to this entire electoral process and for once let everyone when they say- "country first"-truly mean it'. We do not want to end up like our neighbouring states.
Second year into the leadership at Nav-jivan,the audit is over.I scan the reports of the various departments-criss-cross of figures formally put across professional account's lingo.I am learning and have learnt to interpret it quite well.I am not a left dominated person by nature-I am a dreamer,a poet and I am more comfortable with the fuzzy things in life. The auditor sits across the table and beams a bright smile and says -good job!! Who is he talking to I wonder for a moment!. I see a trail of faces in the canvas of my memory of the past two years-Albert,Colin,Jone Wills,Augustine,Emmanuel...and now Pramoth.All administrating to the best of their abilities under extremely difficult,difficult circumstances. I was the one who had it easy-I had that deep,deep assurance , I just had to stand in obedience. Thank you lord-for making us a part of this process.
Was it yesterday? We walked the streets like vagabonds, Eating half-crushed samosas over sweetened cold-drinks, Between procedures and gallons of patients literally. Sat by the road-side dhaba drinking coffee from tumblers, The vendor mixing the coffee from one feet high As the froths settled on the surface,steaming sweet. Dragging our beddings to the roof-top ,counting stars in the night. Aurion,dog-star,venus…..endless sparks in the dark,dark sky. Voices of our culture,background,individuality….all melting …into that single quest we had for discovering our humanity. Was I different then?I thought not- till I saw people who looked exactly like everyone else stop at whatever they were doing -to stare at me.
Epil is a colleague who has worked with me in the hospital where I am now.A conceintiuos doctor,involved to the point of taking responsibilities much beyond her duty.She is a good doctor.She had to shift base after marriage to be with her husband.She stopped working for almost a year.When she visited us after marriage she seemed to have lost touch with medicine so I suggested she join up some hospital near her home. She gave a serious thought to it and she called me up to give me the news that she had got a job in the government primary health care centre ,fifteen minutes walk away from her home.I was glad that she would be in touch with medicine again. After being at work for a month she called me up again. The first day she joined the set-up she got a word of advice from the doctor who had already been there for umpteen number of years.-‘Don’t do a good job of the work you are doing-don’t spend too much of time with the patients or else everyone will want to see you and you will e...
Moses was chosen of God for a very special task.Even as the spotlight falls on him in the word,one sees the hand of God in the troughs and crests of his life all the time .Each time ,rubbing into his character, traits which were of use to the lord for the task he had set before this man.His life although extraordinary goes through the rigours of changes that take place in most ordinary lives.The process through which it occurs although is extra-ordinary no doubt. This Hebrew child has to be abandoned so his life can be saved.He grows up in the palace of the Pharoah with the best that the world can provide and yet he does not forget his roots .In the process he rejects the best the world has to provide to claim what the Jehovah had promised his ancesters.The promise was not tangible then.He is called by God,this faltering man and he obeys.His obedience takes it’s pound of flesh. Every step of the way he has to depend on God and his providence.The people he is called to lead are ignora...