What gives

I have two days all to myself, the first in the new year.Increasingly I find these pauses in between my work   precious. Yesterday I spent the better part of the day spring cleaning my house.Much to the chagrin of the lady who helps me there was heaps of clutter and dust from the nooks and corners .So involved was I in the process that I missed my breakfast   , lunch and had to make do with a packet of biscuit and the lovely English breakfast tea satchet. I did my week’s laundry and got Lalji to put out some strings in my backyard to   sun my clothes. I thought I would spend my time doing some reading but discovered that I had picked the wrong book so did some scripture reading instead.I am working on the letters at the moment. In the evening I did some painting and then played the panflute and my guitar. Rajkumar was kind enough to pick some flowers for me for my dining table,a flush of white,yellow and a lone red rose which has a lovely fragrance. I...

I have been home to Mangan to spend time with family and friends. Whilst at home I had the privellage to attend an old aunt's funeral.She was ready to be with the Lord which was nice.The pastor preached a matter of fact sermon . At home I missed Mom's birthday and the carol services due to the constraints at the hospital but was in time for the family christmas dinner. My sister is got into oil painting and she is doing some great work .This morning she sent us a painting of flowers she had painted with a actual live butterfly hovering on it so she did not need to be complimented for it. I am back in the campus covering for the juniors who are away preparing to give NEET and one of them awaiting for a new arrival,alternating with Dr Dinesh our resident surgeon.Calls are not busy because it is winters but we do get some sick patients. I am yet to really sit down and meditate on the new year and the resolutions,,,,surprisingly I feel the need to make one this year.I co...

Christmas is fast approaching and so is the winter with it's delicious sun and sickening cold that gets to your bones in Varanasi.We are at it ,practising the Christmas choir,Sharon is taking us through the rigours of vocal exercise-basically, teaching us to sing. .I am also doing some oil-painting with a lot of inspiration from my sister .My first painting is done for now but I am told that the final bit is to wax it which I am yet to do after it dries out.I enjoy it but the finger painting takes the cake. It's been a season of grace all through.I am hoping to travel home for Christmas which at the moment seems a little far-fetched with last minute changes in plan.I have my ticket booked and ready. Was dreaming of cooking the Christmas dinner at home this year but I will leave it at that at the moment. Winters are wonderful at home with clear blue sky,oranges a plenty, sun, Christmas, family,fire and the list goes on... Work is lighter but with the juniors down with v...

                    I have just come back after attending   Emmanuel Hospital Association’s golden jubilee celebration .It was a privellage to meet up with so many stalwarts and dear friends and also to just watch all those seniors being commemorated for their long years of services,people who put their lives on hold and actually dedicated their lives to serving in the North Indian missions.For many it would not have been easy but they persisted inspite of all odds,that is what makes it all so special.I had the privellage to sing in the choir .The theme song was beautifully composed by Drs Arpit and Amy Mathew and the choir ably managed by Dr Ashita who had to deal with all our idiosyncracies.I was blessed by it.There were others who had worked night and day behind the scene,Dr Jameela and the central office team were mentioned. The entire programme was tightly manag...

Getting a year older feels good.Just the other day a cousin and a sibling noticed a few grey hairs on my head and had mixed reactions to it.My brother who is a breezy seven years older than I but looks younger was surprised whereas my cousin who is five years younger than I and always complains that we never seem to grow older started teasing me.I relish my grey although they are few and far in between. Special thing about birthdays apart from the fact that the family treats me like I was made of glass is the fact that you get in touch with your long lost friends and sometimes family.The ones who remember do so inspite of years of distance in time and place and we chat and we catch up ,albeit once in a year but they are precious,each one. Good thing about getting older is that a lot of things in life start getting sorted.We tend to prioritise things a lot better,chanellise one's energy in places where we need to ,feel happy doing small things that matter.count it a blessing..in ...

I spent a day in the hospital at the dentist's for my mother's tooth.The doctor pulled out the second tooth in the last two years.It was skillfully and well done.She also got the doppler of the lower limbs done which was normal. Aie Mimi with her wards stood by the road-side waving my parents goodbye even as we boarded the car homeward bound.The same expression of sadness in their faces each time they have to do so. What is it that makes parents so special. Agya is away in the hills with the local villagers scouting for good tourist places they can build up proposals for.He is in the woods for four days at a stretch.The last place he went to was on the top of the gigantic hill I can see from my homestead.He had taken excursion tents which he used for himself but the locals decided to rough it out  in the open jungle.The climb and the descent was a sheer drop,and there were places I believe where they actually had to keep looking at the wall while they swung down the cliff...

In memory of Manoj ,a man with XDR tuberculosis who walked into my outpatient some eight years back to collect his medicines but would succumb ultimately. I gave him the gospel of John ,he thanked me profusely and just when he reached the door turned around and said,'doesn't this gospel begin with ''In the beginning was the Word,the Word was with God and theWord was God....''Even as I looked at him with an open mouth he quietly walked out.He passed away in the next few days.The last few days of his life he read the parts of the Bible to his mother, shared the gospel and went to be with the Lord peacefully.