What gives

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.