What gives

The day before yesterday ,a little before midnight ,a couple was brought to the casualty.They were both dead-long gone and cold by the time they were wheeled in.It was a case of deliberate self harm.Under the normal circumstances ,the doctor would have examined the patients clinically ,declared them and would have continued with her work.This time however,something made her take a long second look at the couple .They looked familiar...The doctor on call was doing a thesis on DSM and had a set of questionnairres she had to go through with each of the patients with the diagnosis.She could not put a finger to the identity so she put down the numbers mentally making a note to take the chart out the next day to see what the earlier visits had been for. All cases of DSM ,before discharge, go through an evaluation and counselling at various grades ...starting from the doctor incharge, to the consultant and if not a staff ,the pastor.If they need help they are sent for specialist consultatio...

Managing the hospital was not the best thing I have done in my lifetime.Three years of administration in Satbarwa I guess, was a growing but a painful time ! By the last but one year I had become almost numb to the pressures of the administration from within the campus but from without,it was a different story altogether.The very fact that I could actually sit behind a desk and listen to the endless chatters of the local touts was an achievement indeed.One day I even ventured to the court amidst pan-chewing lawyers to get into a discussion about a medicolegal case concerning the hospital.I mentally patted myself on my back the day I returned from the lawyer's office wondering how my father would react if I told him about it.Ofcourse,I never did. I was trained to be a doctor,aspired to be a missionary,called to be a christian. The last ten years of my life has been a roller coaster journey moving into very different roles as time and situation demands...... What really set this...

I have been reading 'Things can only get better 'by John O'Farrel ,an ardent labour supporter surviving the eighteen years of conservative rule under Thatcher.I have no idea who is to be given the credit for collecting these books in the library but I bless the soul.This is the second book in a row from the HCH library which is had me in splits..I cannot wait to get my hands on the next one. John O'Farrel is born a labour supporter on the wrong side of the social scale...who has had to survive eighteen years of Thatcherism...all the time hating her guts..!! Here is a man earnestly trying to fit into the labour mould...as he describes...'Every definate opinion I attempted to make petered out halfway through as I realised I ought to consider the other side of the argument ,until the end of my sentence ended up contradicting the beginning'. The book traces out the life of an active labour supporter through the period when the very existance of the labour party ...

Was not keeping too well because of my ears...anyways made the trip to Mirzapur.Came back and felt extremely drowsy....my neighbourhood twins had their first birthday prayer meeting.After the OPD my eyes would just not keep open.I made myself comfortable on the couch ...it felt like I had put my head on the pillow for fifteen minutes and I started dreaming.I dreamt that the stairway leading away from the twins place towards my house upstairs was covered with a snow-white sheet and decorated with tiny flowers...I was trying to make my way to my place through the decoration but it was pinned through and through.The room to their house had a certain glow and deep within was an inner voice telling me the prayer was about to start..I woke up from my slumber then and the meeting but started.What a strange dream ,so apt.My lazy self made my way to the meeting only after a phonecall from the parents..but this was a refreshed me! I have had this dream on my mind for sometime. The sunday follo...

Read two books over the fortnight. 'Like a dandelion dust'-on a possible adoption revocation. 'Handle with care'-about a child with Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Both the stories surprisingly are stories which depict sensitively the struggle a parent will go through to do the very best,as they perceive, for their children....the struggle....the dependance on Egypt....near fall ......and restoration on one count and rather sad conclusions on the other. Both the stories are supposedly fictions built on research..but it could easily be your story and mine.... It struck me how hard it is for us fallen men and women to let go and let God.... We forget time and again how great our God is....Elohe Tzevaot,the Lord of Hosts!!

It was Mirzapur again this morning.The morning clinic brings in a steady stream of women in all shapes and sizes...The call for prayer in the mosque is followed by a spectrum of pretty little ladies pouring out from the madrassas in green dresses and white scarves...very curious to see me sitting in the clinic,they peep in through the netted window with broad smiles.Some of them greet me with a salaamalequm! to which I immediately respond walequm salaam! and am rewarded by giggles..Near the door, the whole morning, a dignified elderly gentleman has been watching the proceedings in the clinic and Mukesh introduces him as the patriach of the family and the head of the village....he serves us lovely tea towards mid-morning in decent china...By the way ,his son has won the municiple elections I believe. My colleagues tell me there has never been a communal violence in the area.Mind you ,there is not one ANC patient in the clinic.The NRHM actually has made it's presence felt here,they...