What gives

I am trying to beat the Benaras heat with crayons,colour,psalms,gospels,song of Solomon,and Audrey Assad. Song of Solomon 2:15 says,'Catch for us the foxes ,the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,our vineyards that are in bloom..'How often I have to go beyond the movenment of everyday living to commune with my King before I can detect the little foxes.How he yearns for us to come to him broken ,blind and bleeding to be shown these little foxes we would willingly give up for our Master. Audrey Assad was introduced to me in a baptist church during my years's furlough.I remember one of the pastors sharing how she while walking alone up the Mount Everest base camp was helped by listening to this song even while she plodded up the hill which was cold,tough ,tiring and which at that time seemed scary and endless.A beautifully meditative track ,I say. In my personal reading I have been struck by a phrase from the book of Romans which says '...We do not support the root ...

April has been an eventful month.I got to meet most of the family.My father celebrated his eighty-eight birthday,my sister and my brother-in-law was home for the holidays which was nice and I got to meet the greater family ,and my immediate family thanks to the elections which comes around once every four years and just being home..Most of my greater family memories are entwined around the cardomom harvesting season.....which is becoming rarer by dozen.We spent a considerable part of our holidays painting the fences at home in between the rain and shine,I managed to paint my book-rack,apparently ages old,talking of antiques...one of the copper containers were actually from the sixteen hundreds.My mother continues to use my grandfather's aluminium bowl from his Sreerampore theological seminary as a rice measuring bowl.She makes sure all of us keep it filled each time we measure out the rice to be cooked for the day.We do not understand the logic but I do believe that blessings come...

This fortnight has been different from any other.I am anticipating a tough summer but I am sailing in by the grace of God.I have developed a new interest in eating fish with whiskers fried just right and as have been advising the patients thus far,I hope my haemoglobin takes a kickstart.I already feel so much better. In the work front ,it is getting busier,more interesting and after a laboratory and x-ray closure imposed on us has been lifted I am enjoying medicine as I should .We had a freak viper bite come in with local swelling,AKI and a prolonged CT.He is on the road to recovery.The last I saw a viper bite was fifteen years ago. A day earlier another lady was pushed into the casualty with a history of having consumed insecticide.We asked them to show us the pictuere of the poison and the son had a picture of Cypermethrin in his mobile.Apart from the smell which was strong enough to give me a headache her saturation was in the seventies but she was bright and awake scolding her...

I enjoy watching the swan paddle and swim in the water in front of the hospital.Today I realised why?The ducks and the swans everywhere around the world look the same,regal,dignified and beautiful and go about their daily activity sublime and oblivious of all the dirt and cacophony that surrounds them and yet manage to mantain their graceful demeanour. Today was a strange day to say the least.Our day started with Parwati getting extremely restless on the moderate amount of oxygen which was available.We finally had to opt for intubation and bagging to get her going.By the middle of the afternoon we had got her insurance in order and so was able to cart her to a bigger unit for the much needed HRCT/CTPA and a good ICU care.Vikash offered to accompany her and Vijay went along for the paper works that would be required.She belongs to the Musahir community which is a community of rat-eaters.She has been safely transferred to a tertiary care centre by God's grace,her care covered b...

The burden of rabies in India is supposed to be 18,000 to 20,000 deaths per year as per the WHO figures.In my little over a six month period in eastern UP I have seen more dog-bites and rabid patients than I have seen in other parts of India.I saw young children,adolescents,older persons, a strapping sixteen year old with full blown features.Every other day we get patients with dog-bites,mongoose bites and the list goes on.Today I saw a five month old baby with a wild animal bite.You just walk out of the campus and one sees variety of stray dogs roaming around the country-side. Everytime a person with a dog-bite walks in I give them a small lecture about awareness and the need to vocalise and demand vaccination of the stray dogs in the villages.Everyone gives me a blank stare and smiles happy to shell out the cost of the vaccine which must be taking a portion out of their daily earnings. We even tried to bring it to the notice of one of the officers in the government.He coolly shrug...

My spring onions have sprung up and thrived much to my delight in a flower pot.The garlic has also sprouted but is not as good.I had put in some coriander seeds and chilly,some greens are growing from one of the pots but it does not exactly look like anything I have planted so I catch all and sundry who walk by ,to identify the plant and so far I have not had a satisfactory reply so I am just letting it grow.Each time I walk out and walk into my house I give my plants a good look over.It brings me great joy. The campus seems to have perenial flowers and the winter was as colourful as I hope spring will be.The chill of the Varanasi cold did get to me but even as I put on my coat to attend a call this evening I actually started sweating.So the weather is slowly but surely changing.Spring will come to England with a startle.Overnight the daffodils will dance and the trees all around will bloom blood red,purple,snow-white,blue,lavender,yellow and every splash of colour taking one's b...

I had some time before the OPD finished for the day so I started talking to one of our young friends who is all of twenty years. Her father is a weaver of carpets but has made sure that none of the children take up the profession because it is hard work. Most people in the villages around do weaving in some form.I met an old person today who weaves the famous Banarasi saris and has invited me to see him at work.This man earns around Rs 400 per day but the sari ,the basic one, costs around thirty thousand without the gold and silver work.He seems to think that most of these saris get sent abroad because according to him 'Indians cannot afford it'.He is blissfully unaware that the richest asian according to the Forbe's list is an Indian.I choose not to correct him beacuse it will not make a pi of difference to his life.He has invited me over to see him at work. My little friend's father weaves the humbler carpet which sells at around Rs 3000 per piece but gets paid on...