What gives

These days have been hectic to say the least.With stipulated time at home I spent the days cooking meals for the carol,cooking christmas dinner for the family and just doodling with my neice,my sister,my brother,my cousins and my precious parents.By doodling I do not mean sketching.Post Christmas has been hectic with a sudden decision to take a cousin's husband for a scan .He has been showing signs of stroke for the past two years but stubbornly refused to go to a doctor.He had multiple infarcts at a young age of fifty five in the MRI.My last but oneday was spent in the hospital corridors of Manipal in Gangtok.Was back at home at around ten at night to find my beautiful family waiting up for me with special dinner and my bags packed for the early morning journey I had to make to the heart-land.Once back I have not had too much time to think. On the flight from Baghdogra to Delhi I was a withness to that uncomfortable struggle of ordered meals with no cash in hand to pay.The aircra...

Travelling home for Christmas had me very thoughtful.I had my tickets booked via Delh in a Vistara flight and I got more than I bargained for.Flying was a joy.The service was impeccable and the food amazing.I actually enjoyed a biryani for it's fragrant rice instead of the meat pieces and that is saying a lot considering that it was a packed lunch on the flight.The entertainment panel was open to our electronic modes as with the international flights.They were hassled about the delay and hurried things up and almost made time.The hostesses were helpful and kind.The road travel from Baghdogra to Mangan was a four hour drive through the bends and breaks.I travelled along Teesta as the evening lights were flickering on and one could see stars and Christmas decorations in the christian homes on the way. It has often brought a lot of joy to our hearts. My uncle who goes for early morning walks to the town towards the North suggested we get up early in the morning to see the Christma...

December is here.I spent the first evening sharing a meal with our dear girls in the nursing hostel and ended it with John's kebab at Dr Raju's. Today was the second of December and we heard a sermon on 'Hope in Christ 'from Dinesh.What touched me was the picture of ...'the nature groaning as in the pains of chilbirth right upto the present time.'....and he corelated it with the bible verse which was read today,Isaiah 55 vs 12 onward-'You shall go out with joy and be lead forth in peace,and the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.Can you imagine the joy of watching the nature rejoice,mountains and the hills bursting into songs and the trees clapping with joy while we go out in Joy, being lead forth in peace. Mind you ,the verse before that goes,'so My words that proceed from My mouth will not return to me empty,but it will accomplish what I please....' It also says ...

A sixty years old lady was brought in with a history of being bed-bound for better part of ten years with a gradual mental decline.She had her left leg flexed and would not let anyone touch it.She looked considerably pale but had a comfortable haemoglobin of nine and would struggle with pain day in and day out.We got an ultrasound of her abdomen incase she was tracking a cold abscess in her psoas.It showed hyperechpic kidneys bilaterally and a gallstone.In the evening when we went for the rounds we noticed that the painful legs were unusually cold as compared to the right side so we made a note to send her for doppler of the left feet the next day.Her chest X-ray showed extensive haziness on the left side which to our unsuspecting eye looked semi-homogenious.We tried unsuccessfully to get some sputum and was somehow not settled with her because we were missing something beyond the dementia which the relatives claimed she had. The next day I was in the chapel and the worship was going ...

EXODUS- Exodus-Sinai-Tabernacle. Deliverence-Law-Presence. The God who delivers-1-18. The God who demands-19-24. The God who draws near-25-40. 'I will bless you'Genesis 12 vs 2 The blessing is fulfilled two-fold,firstly by giving God's law on mount Sinai and by His presence with his people in the tabernacle. The Law reveals our need for a savior. The law reveals God's standard. (His charecter). Exodus 20 vs 2 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt,the land of slavery.'Exodus 20 vs 2. There is deliverence before the giving of the law. If obedience to law is not the path to membership in the covenant of God,it is required for the enjoyment of blessing within the covenant. 'If you obey me fully and keep my covenant,then out of all nations you will be my treasured possesion.'Exodus 19 vs 5.

Today a calm and collected man walked into the OPD.I had seen him on an earlier occassion and had started him on oral hypoglycaemics.He entered my OPD and he said he had come to test his sugars and he had been off the medication for the past five days.My first reaction was to pounce on him for not having taken the medicines as prescribed and secondly I would have hit the roof under normal circumstances because the glucometer simply read 'Hi'which means it was unable to interpret the level since it was uncontrolled,but soemthing held me back.He quietly informed me that he had had a dizzy spell this morning which had brought him to the OPD that day. I asked him a simple question why? and he matter of factedly told me that his eighteen year old son who had been working in a battery factory in Mumbai had succumbed to a burn injury and had died in Mumbai.I looked at him with my mouth literally open and he quietly addaed sixteen people had lost their lives.My heart sank and I felt t...

History-Genesis to Esther. Poetry-Job to Song of Songs. Prophecy-Isaiah to Malachi. Law-Genesis to deutronomy. Prophets-Former-Joshua to 2 Kings Latter-Isaiah to Malachi. Writings-Psalms ,wisdom literature,history of exile and beyond. Old Testament. 1.The pattern of the kingdom. 2.The perished kingdom. 3.The promised Kingdom. 4.The partial kingdom. 5.The prophesied kingdom. The New Testament. 6.The present kingdom. 7.The proclaimed kingdom. 8.The perfected Kingdom. (Courtesy-God's Big Picture-Vaughan Roberts)

A lady was brought into the out-patient dittery on the feet supported on either side by her sons with a history of severe headache.I have learnt not to take things at face value so I dug for history further.The lady sounded confused but the bystanders insisted that the headache and loss of appetite were her main complaints for the past four days.On prodding further ,the son added that it had started with fever a few days back but had been treated by the local doctor for malaria(read quack).I still did not buy what they were saying so I took her to the casualty and started working on her regular parameters.Her BP,Pulse rate ,temperature and the GRBS was fine.Her saturation however was just 82 %.On clinical examination she had crepts in the right base. Putting two and two together ,an hour or two later and she would have presented with hypoxic seizure and we would have been running around in circles for the diagnosis.This is a delimna of clinical presentation in this part of India.Peopl...

I cannot see beyond the moment but, in this moment I can see the hills of Zion in the horizon... I can colour the sky pink in autumn, the hills of golden hue, the bushes in colour the rivers deep and wide, I can paint the lillies , the way my mother likes it.. 'easter white' I can paint snow on the mountains, gurgling brooks, and deep,deep blue sky.. I can create stillness in my canvas, the Holy silence, I can colour my trees and bushes golden brown with fire, purple and green dancing ,and tiptoeing to the whims and fancies of my inexperienced brush... I can paint the dew of Hermon... falling on Mount Zion, I can even stand on Mount Pisgah and look at the promised land... in this moment , (Dedicated to the family of the soul that succumbed to depression in DSM and to the mother who lost a child even as she helped us buy the vemtilator for our ACU)

Church today was another stint in learning the great truth.We are studying the book of ACTs one of the two books of the gospel attributed to Dr Luke. In between ,Dr R took the congregation through the ten commandments.The congregation knew each of the commandments by heart. 1.You shall have no other Gods beside me. 2.You shall not make any idols. 3.You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 4.Remember the sabbath day ,to keep it Holy. 5.Honor your father and mother. 6.You shall not murder. 7.You shall not commit adultery. 8.You shall not steal. 9.You shall not bear false withness. 10.You shall not covet. Dr R said something which greatly changed the way I had looked earlier at these commandments. He said 'The ten commandments was actually the charecter of God 'and he was teaching the israellites to be like Him. 'Be ye perfect even as your heavenly father is perfect'-Mathew 5 vs 48. Can you even begin to understand the heart of God which te...

I spent my birthday in Varanasi.I booked myself into a heritage hotel built as a palace by the King of nepal in the late 1800s,filled with tourists.The place was good enough ,I especially liked the decor which had elements of traditional with modernity.The food was allright,ranging all the way from buffet breakfast with a south-indian spread to pancakes and baked beans .etc.The first evening I just decided to tag along with a bengali family in the hotel car to see the Ganges at sunset with the aarti.The first view of Ganga from the ghats is deadly literally ,you could just fall down to your death if you are not careful.The hotel had booked the boat so we were well looked after.The driver told us to be wary of anyone and everyone and that they would look after us.He said the reason he could not possibly do otherwise was because he was on a salary roll in the hotel for Rs 7000 per month and he would not like to lose his only source of income.He was matter-of fact in the reason why the gh...

It has been a mundane enough fortnight or so ,going about doing my usual things.I feel fortunate to be in a campus where there is no dirth of inspiration from God's word or His work.The festival of lights has kicked in in the heart of India.I have taken the next three days off ,booked myself into a heritage hotel in Varanasi built by the maharajah of Nepal in the 1890's.I hope to do some shopping ,supplement my childlike art materials and some knick knacks for the kitchen,and perhaps a DSLR or a good printer which will be compatible with my notebook.I also hope to do some reading and explore Benaras if I feel like it,the cultural side.I hope to escape the rush of the actual diwali day by being back in the campus by then. I have been doing some talking with people,and I find myself extremely vulnerable listening to their stories.I listened to a heart's cry of a father whose son was fighting death.One evening while behind the nursing station he started chatting about his son...

She got up in the church and testified matter of factedly. She is the only believer in the village.Her relatives had been actively involved in closing down her house-group. The other day they came up to her and asked her to pray for their son who was supposed to appear for some exams in faraway Lukhnow but could not get up from bed because he was sick.She was still upset with them about their hand in closing the house group so she told them to go and pray to their Gods.They refused and insisted that she pray for them.She did and the son got healed and actually appeared for his exams in faraway Lukhnow. Villagers come to her for prayer but she tells them they need not come to her ,they could pray directly to God themselves through Jesus Christ and the Lord would listen to their prayer. This was a village lady in the heart of the hindu heartland. It is amazing how the Lord encourages us through the quiet determination in the testimony of His children ,sometimes from unexpected sourc...

Skimming through the book of ACTS with Dr R in the church on sunday morning is an eye-opener. Annanias and Saphira die,the fear of God is instilled in people and the gospel spreads, Paul comes face to face with the silversmiths in Ephesus,there is opposition but the gospel is preached, Stephen is stoned to death,gospel spreads, Peter and John heal the beggar outside the temple,everyone is amazed,gospel is preached and God is glorified, Peter and John are brought before the Sanhedrin,gospel is preached, Paul is converted,the gospel is preached, Peter sees a vision at Cornellius' house,gospel is opened to the gentiles, Whatever the circumstances were,there was a common end that Jesus was preached. Regardless of what happens to us ,the gospel(Jesus)must be preached and glorified.It is to that end we serve. While writing this up my attention went towards this verse in ACTS 20 vs 24 - as Paul puts it to the Ephesians-'However ,I consider my life worth nothing to me,my onl...

It is with a sense of concern that I have come face to face with the reality of actual hunger in my country.There are extremely malnutritioned and sick babies in the nooks and corners of India ignored,unaccounted for.With a deep sense of shame I call out all the big time politicians who have benefitted from the votes of the common man in UP,I call out the film-stars who with their head held high say they are from UP ,to all the celebritties and average Indian men and women who donate millions of rupees to the temples ...how could they not be aware of existance of these extremely poor people tied up in the bondages of poverty,ignorance and just plain hunger. Talking to one of the community health personals whilst conducting literacy classes they found that there were certain women group who were very dull and just could not pick up the lessons.On making further enquiry it was found when they had food in the house the first person to eat would be the men and then the children would eat ...

I am not obsessed with dogs.We have always had dogs at home and the best I can say about my relationshio with them is that we have a peaceful co-existance.I have never been the one to feed the dog,take it for walks or to bathe it.I tried keeping a small puppy during my Satbarwa stint but I had a tragic incident with it,while I was away from the campus,it died . Hero was a series of dogs that came to stay with the family but it had a special eccentricity ,it used to dig it's teeth into stranger's ankles so it stayed with it's collar on most days.There were boys who needed a lot of nagging to look after the dog and it was my mother's prerogative to do the needful. However the same cannot be said about two of my older siblings.When they are at home the dogs get shiny coats,clips on their hair and all the fancy stuff.The last time I actually enjoyed a dog was Timmy the foxy alsation who was a vision to watch when it ran across the field.Intelligent and a beautifully faith...

Some moments are special.It brings us a reminder of the precious moments in the life of Christ.Today was one such time.The sharing from believers about the recent happenings in and around the place was concluded by encouragement to stand firm in Christ.One moment one of the pastors put forward direct questions to the congregation about their commitment was the situation to change dramatically,the congregation answered they would stand firm. To me it brought a poignant reminder of my master in the last days of His ministry on earth.His questions to Simon Peter which Simon Peter in flesh responds to with a zest but as Jesus predicts denies Him thrice and he cries bitterly when Jesus looks at him.Compared to that was a later time ,after the crucification when Jesus appears before His disciples when Jesus asks Simon Peter,'Peter ,do you love me?'Peter is more mature,knows himself better and answers with a depth of maturity. When Jesus looked at them as individuals I am sure they...

Apart from the array of medical cases I have been seeing the time is come with it's own set of challenges.Yesterday was a difficult day.Early morning ,a lady was brought into the casualty screaming in pain.She was in the 32nd week of her pregnancy according to the LMP but was 35 weeks as per the ultrasound.She had delivered a premature baby by caeserian section just a year and half back,all of one and half KGs.She had severe scar tenderness and the relatives were insistant we go ahead with the C-sec ,they were willing to take the baby to a paediatric care post-delivary was there a problem.The USG weight of the baby was 2 and a half KGs .Just after we consented to do the surgery we found out that she had not had any blood tests done and was an unbooked case. We did the tests and did the surgery as well.It was a tough surgery with old scars but the baby was healthy and cried lustily at birth.However while we proceeded to close the abdomen the baby started grunting.So we called the r...

Medical cases I have been bumping into in the out-patient. 1.Systemic sclerosis. 2.Rheumatoid arthrites-mismanaged outside on steroid abuse. 3.Craniovertebral anamoly with fusion of the first three vertebraes and presentation with symptoms akin to cervical myelopathy. 4.Florid AR with all the peripheral signs. 5.Interstitial lung disease . 6.Tropical pulmonary eosinophilia, 7.Acyanotic heart disease with early eisenmenger's. 8.Peripheral artery disease with ABPI of 8. 9.History suggestive of recurrent arrythmia probably VT. 10.Diabetes Mellitus with ketoacidosis. 11.Snake bites and more snake bites. 12.Bronchial asthma. 13.COPD. 14.Bad tuberculosis -lost four patients with TB so far. 15.Lots of Neurocysticercosis with focal seizures. 16.Regular diabetics with uncontrolled sugar. 17.Hypothyroidism. 18.All sorts of fevers. 19.Pyogenic meningites with seizures in paediatric age group. 20.Severe incompletely worked up anaemias. 21.Stroke, 22.Hypertension,primary. ...

The time for testimony was going on in the church.There were beautiful testimonies shared by different people.They touched my heart.One particular testimony brought me to tears.It was a lady who got up from her seat in the back row.She shared about life without men in her house.They were away in the city.A wave of rainstorm came the last week .She had some crop which were out in the open and she had no space to shift them in .She was in a delimna. The neighbours looked at her plight and shook their heads.Suddenly her two little children who attend the sunday school and can hardly talk came with a bright idea.'Mother,why don't we pray to Jesus Christ?'.So the three of them knelt down and prayed ,the children could not say much beyond 'ishu masih' over and over again and when they had finished praying the rain stopped and her crops are doing well. Why was this testimony so beautiful to me?,it is because this is the Jesus Christ I know ,a great God who is mindful of...

Did I just have a double dinner?Yes I did.I had just had a maggie with fried eggs and Swetha came to my door with a full dinner.I ate it without a second thought,sometimes it feels like as though I have dementia.I actually do not know what I am swallowing.I ventured out to the Kachwa market and was surprised at the number of shops that were actually there.It is endless.The kindly kid who took me shopping was to cycle back home in time so we went meandering through the shops picking up bricks and bats and ended up in a cloth shop that belonged to a patient of ours.The heat was getting to my head and I was actually feeling giddy and faint but somehow managed to pick up some eggs,bananas and the cloth I needed. The government has put out an alert for fever cases taking into consideration that apparently 84 people have died of an unknown fever in the past six weeks in different parts of UP. I am not too surprised because we had our share of children coming in with fever and convulsions,i...

For a couple of days the pond in front of the hospital where I work has been haunting me.I look at the green slime,the water bottles and the plastics that have been thrown in but inspite of it,it reminds me of the pool at Bethesda.It is strategically right in front of the inpatient and the patients start sitting out in the corridor as they recover overlooking the pool.There is a family of duck which waddles in the pond happily oblivious of the life and sometimes death around.I ,when I walk to the hospital look at those sedate creatures and often wonder how they would fit in ,in the real world.They are joyful to watch and complete and beautiful and brings a form of orderliness into the paraphenalia. I needed to draw the pool,so on a sunday afternoon I sat with my crayons and drew my idea of the pool as I saw it in my mind's eye.I remembered the family of ducks but I decided I would not know how to fit the family in the frame ,so concentrated on the bits which reminded me of ...

It is little over a fortnight in Kachwa.I find myself doing little things that make life a little easier.I got my flu-shot the other day .Come August I start sniffing and it goes on throughout the year.It hampers my concentration and the uncomfortable cold comes in the way of my thinking clearly.One headache out of the way,not too expensive one but increasingly becoming essential.The other thing I make sure I have with me is my press-biopic glasses.I increasingly found that for some reason I was reading less.I picked up a glass from Waterstone and suddenly overnight I had got back my love of reading.At the moment I am reading 'Joy unspeakable'by D.Martin lloyd Jones.It is a tough glass which goes into my pocket without a case,it is light and is made of plastic I think because it is nowhere near breaking after the rough handling it gets. Kachwa is a mixed bag with life changing sermons like the one I heard on Habakkuk from Dr Raju and a humbling testimony of a village woman who...

It is coming to be a fortnight of working in Kachwa.It has been a period of hit and misses.My medical skills as usual are thoroughly tested in these waters.I am flooded with gynaec and obstetric patients in the out-patient and paediatric patients in the in-patient.Most bystanders are tall bullies who just drown you out with their bullying ways.I am still adjusting to the climate so much so that I have not even got around to arranging the kitchen with the scattered bits and bobs I have gathered from Benaras and around.My pressure cooker is still in it's cartoon,I realised today. At home my mother is still struggling to swallow the multiple pills she has been prescribed.She is taking her vitamin D satchets weekly with another pill to keep the Calcium and phosphate in check everyday and an anti-gout medicine.She was also prescribed sodium bicarbonate tablets which I have stopped for now because she is struggling to swallow the umpteen number of pills.Her appetite is gone for a sixer ...

So far I have been hit by the reality of poverty of UP.I have met people and more people ,layers of them everywhere.It has been a walk on a tight rope with daily update from home about mom's health.I came to Kachwa with a sixteen kilogram suitcase ,a backpack and a guitar.Somehow I managed the first week living off my suitcase. With a mind to pick up some household items from 'big bazaar I travelled to Varanasi and I was overwhelmed with more humanity and layers of them.Relaxed and satisfied crowd in the city,one person on a bike in the traffic suddenly took a fancy to the modified bolero pickup and while the traffic was moving ,put his head into the driver's side and earnestly wanted to know the price of the vehicle.He was on a scooter by the way.Where in the world would you find such class acts? Waiting for the car to drive in from the parking lot I sat in a shed where a couple of men were sitting whiling time.I asked them a couple of questions about the city and an eld...

She stumbled into our lives somewhere in midschool.She was beautiful,kind,very large hearted and the BIGGEST fan of Imran Khan when we were hardly cricket educated.She was my older sister's friend,and my friend,a warm soul who patiently used to take us youngsters along.I remember her singing 'Stumbling in'with one of her friends in one of the school functions,I remember our principal singling her out oneday for being caught on television watching a cricket match in Siliguri during one of the holidays. Everyone used to pull her leg about her soft spot for the fancy cricketer. I remember many a times tagging along with her to her father's office in Gangtok to collect her pocket money.She always gave us a treat after that.Once in Siliguri,she came to pick me up onroute home.I met her mother who fed us a wonderful meal and a lot of mangoes. Growing up is a process,I do not remember exactly where and when we lost touch.I don't even remember if she continued in our sch...

My phone saga says a lot of things about me.I have had my share of mobile telephones since the contraption is become available in the Indian market.That could go back well above a decade. There are few of them that is engraved in my mind forever. One of my earlier phone was a nokia 1000.It was supposed to be known for it's toughness and was one of the cheapest phones available. I have this fantastic tendency to drop things from my hand from time to time. Everyone and their brother used to watch in stunned silence as my phone used to drop from my hand and used to get seperated into six different pieces.While they looked on in concern I used to give them a smile and pick up the pieces,put them together and get on with my life.The phone suited me.It was capable of receiving umpteen number of official calls I used to make and get while I was in Satbarwa. One of the memories I have is of one of my professors in the UK sitting in the car chaffeuring me and patiently putting the pie...

These are times when the Lord is teaching me humility through periods of responsibilities that is nearer home.I am having to dabble with issues of old-age and medical problems in a place where a good medical facility is a laugh to say the least.In whole of Sikkim there is no nephrologist and there is but one in Siliguri whose appointment apparently is hard to come by but a help from a cousin's friend made it possible.After four hours of wait for a nephrologist who seem to be managing emergency,wards,couselling and I don't know what ,he was kind enough to see my mother first.He gave some good advice.Then I found myself staring at a very borderline,early renal failure with high parathormone levels.By God's grace all the electrolytes were normal.Rest of the results are awaited.It could not be secondary to early CKD so am dabbling with an endocrine issues too now.Thanks to a senior , guiding me through this.Hopefully I will hear from my endocrine colleagues too,soon enough. In...

' Whenever the day came for Elkannah to sacrifice he would give portions of his meat to Penninah and to all her sons and daughters.But to Hannah he gave double portion because he loved her and the Lord had closed her womb. ' Was Elkannah biased?Why did he love her more? Hannah had a lot of good qualities. 1.She was single-minded in her pursuit of what she wanted. 2.She knew the exact door she needed to knock. 3.She was broken and ready for God to do His work in her life. 4.She was devoted to God. 5.She remembered her vow before God and fulfills it. 6.Her obedience opened the doors of blessing for her life and a way of communication for her people, with God. 7.She deemed herself to be a servant of the Lord. 8.She knew how to pour her soul before the Lord. 9.She was a humble woman who gave respect where it was due. 10.She was quick in recognising Lord's favour and names her son Samuel,'Because I asked the Lord for him.' 11.She did in practise what the ...

'But we have this treasures in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.We are hardpressed from every side,but not crushed:perplexed but not in distress,;persecuted but not abandoned;struck down but not destroyed.We always carry around our body the death of Jesus,so that life of Jesus may be revealed in our body.For we are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus'sake,so that His life may also be revealed in our mortal body.'2 Cornithians 4 vs 7--11. Actually!

Last but one week has been a rewarding and a humbling experience.Took parents for their annual health check-up ,besides mom had been complaining of tooth-ache and was spiking a slight temperature off and on.Walking through Manipal in Gangtok,it made me realise what a blessing the place is for the people pf Gangtok.I remember my brother-in-law talking about the Manipal group of hospitals as to how the founder actually was a visionary and had made a vow to bring state of art health facilities to the villages and to bring the people of the cities to the villages seeking good health services.They have achieved it upto a certain extent.It was reassuring to note that Mr Narayanmurthy had also been present during laying of the foundation stone.For the people of Sikkim who have all their lives rushed off to Siliguri for minimal health problems ,this is indeed a blessing. The dentist was a kind fellow who effortlessly took out the tooth with 'the caries' which made things so much easie...

A chistian walk is a journey where you 'show up' as Jesus did. A christian walk is a road that leads us to a destination . A christian walk is every step you take along the way..chatting,discussing,disagreeing in Christ but walking along in anticipation that Christ will show up. A christian walk is not an idea,a vague presence that emerges when it is convenient,it is being present. A christian walk is like a spring rain which comes with power and anointing but also the winter rain which is unexpected and tiptoes in gently watering the mundane. A christian walk is a walk where you decide to walk together along the uncertain road....and Jesus shows up...and things become clearer as you walk along. A christian walk is a walk from Egypt to israel. A christian walk is a journey from crucification to resurrection. I could go on but I have a journey to make today.

It has been a fairly busy fortnight or so ,in between I felt a little morose and had some trouble trying to get interested in anything much,I enjoyed my bible reading,loved spending time with parents and brother but was a little restless.I had this great desire to start some kind of course perhaps a biblical one but since the internet has been a problem,I am considering doing mountain medicine in Kathmandu sometime at the end of this year,come winter I need to try and squeeze in my mother's knee replacement which she has agreed to atlast. The rains continue to pour.Uncle Saring all of eighty years took to bed yesterday with chest discomfort and fever.I was in and out of his home the whole day yesterday and the first thing in the morning.It was a joy to see him well and usual today.Visiting the local hospital to get an ECG done was a nightmare as usual .Firstly on a sunday there was a single lady doctor seeing patients.When we asked for an ECG to be done we were asked to come the n...

The internet here has been erratic but I am alright with it because it is one of the 'thieves of time'.As a result I am able to do a lot of things I want to do.We have a bumper crop of bananas this season it seems.It rains bananas every other day ,green ones ,ripe ones...We have distributed it widely,yesterday another crop of big bananas went to the church as first fruit and it continues.Between Annie and myself we are becoming quiet adept cake bakers.Plum,banana,cheese,name it and we have done it...and we continue to do it...just waiting for Aie Mimie to come home with her lovely paraphenalia of children she has surrounded herself with. I have managed to make a second batch of plum jam and also tried the second batch of passion fruit and peaches. Yesterday I made dosas for dinner.All family ate supper at four quietly,I think they were impressed by the perfect dosas that was made out of the ready made mix.Ofcourse the secret I think is to not go by the direction but to work o...

We have been home barely a month.The first few days were spent appreciating the joy of being home,my room which has a lot of space and overlooks the oppositte hills.I sleep with stars and the lights from the hills for company. Jonathan was with us for a few days over from Oddanchattram. When I was doing my postgraduation,Jonathan was the youngest kid in the campus,I remember him as a chubby little kid running around the campus ,a darling of everyone around.Dr Latha and Dr Paul used to take us for impromptu weekend retreats to the Panchalur hills and we used to love it there. With Jonathan we could make two main trips. We went into the Dzongu hills,boated across the Mantam lake,which is a naturally formed reservoir as a result of a huge chunk of the oppositte hill falling into the river.At it's virgin state when I visited it it looked ferocious,now it looks tame but it continues to wash away the bridges built over it ,making commuting difficult for the faint-hearted. Once we cr...

It has been a not so easy fortnight to tell you the truth.I have felt homesick to the core as I have moved from place to place ,just rolling along with Annie.She seems so grown up suddenly with a mind of her own and the next she is just a small child....my little neice looka after me more than I her.I have missed the stability of home and parents.Yesterday was another packed day.Church was the Lutherian church St Mary's on the hill side in Lovett lane,traditional Lutherian I found the tradition quite charming.The reading was from psalm 81 which was powerfully sung ,almost like anglican in the way it conducted the service. The preaching was on a mixture of various biblical passages with a lot of referance to Torah and the Talmud,a little confusing for me.Met a young kid from Ranchi who had been attending the church for over a year.As we talked she took my card for whatever reason. Annie had wanted to buy a backpack , which everyone and their brother seem to be carrying,a swedis...