What gives

Mr P came to the outpatient with a diabetic wife who had chest pain but was stable then. He got around talking about his life.He had missed the govenrment pension and was bemoaning his plight.He had worked all his life in the national jute mill in Kolkotta .When Mr Ramnath Goenka died the  mill spiralled downhill.The government of West Bengal under Mr Basu had to take over  but it was not working , they decided to shut it down. The livelihood  of the thirty thousand workers were at stake ,I suspect mostly from the heartland, Mrs Gandhi had to intervene and the central government apparently took over the running of the mill. In the mean time Mr P retired.The mill ran under the central government leadership for another half a decade after the which the government gave  VRS to all the employees and shut down the mill for good.Mr  P however missed the bus so did not become eligible for the government pension .He is left with memories and the bitter  taste of a ...

 This is a post long overdue.I promised Evelyn I would write this a month ago but somehow the connect between the pen and the thought process did not come through easily so I conveniently pushed it back somewhere in a file in the grey matter.Today I was reminded, so here it is. I am not too passionate about rabbits.I know them as creatures which have a reputation of eating up the area where they reside...apparently nothing grows around them so I am wary because if there is one thing that can bring a deep seated joy in my heart it is plants and the flowers especially in the wild. I find rabbits dumb and not particularly special to look at.The only time it had me involved  was on a cold Satbarwa winter in Wendy's stew.It was my first and perhaps the last . So I was not too excited to see the creatures cohabit the paraphenalia in one of the old garages in the campus.I looked at it from a distance and enjoyed the roses more than it's neighbour. One day I saw our little friend Dani...

 Laxman came to us at the middle of the night huffing and puffing.He belongs to the local tribal community.He did not have an iota of money on his person.He had this abscess in the chest wall with Empyema on the same side.He basically had empyema necessittans and we did not know where it extended.He had been all over the place for more than a month. We requested the local radiology to do a HRCT of the chest for fifty percent of the charge which they promptly agreed to do.As expected he had empyema necessitans and better stil, it had extended all the way to the diaphragm and the heart. By the time he came back with the CT he was huffing and puffing.It would be fair to say we put in a needle twice but just drew blood which made me a little nervous about putting in a chest tube blindly. Once we had a HRCT in hand we advised the relatives to travel a little further  to the prestigious BHU where he would probably need a thoracoscopy but ofcourse they refused. We did an open thoraco...

 Do I have something to say-Nah...I am too busy trying to live my life. The Sikkim government has just announced the vaccines.I finished watching the movie 'Seven years in  Tibet'. Strngely nostalgic and a sad movie. Watched it from a distance even as I tried to find a small part of my root in those closed forbidden  terrains,although Pharidjong where my paternal grandmother came from was lower down near the  Bhutanese kingdom I understand. I try to look at my grandmother through my mother's eyes. I asked her questions gallore.My mother a young bride from a christian and a mixed background  marrying into a family with a matriach who was a tibetain nobility from a very rich budhist culture. I wondered how they got on woman to woman.My mother does not have any bad memories of her  mother-in-law. I get the picture of a very classy woman who never had a harsh word to say about her  and loved her and vice versa.My mother talks about the last days when her m...

 Yesterday I read about my seven feet tall imposing paternal great grand-uncle who was the Governer of Pharedjong in Tibet ,Rimshi Doti, had the distinction of bailing out five united states pilots who were caught in their bomber during war. While doing a bit of research myself I also found a cup somewhere in a musuem in New Zealand which had been presented by him to William Dunning. The books from where I take the referance are 'Out of this world-Across the himalayas,to forbidden tibet.', 'Flight to adventure,to Alaska and Beyond 'by Lowell Thomas Junior.

This year I do not get to celebrate Christmas or my mom's birthday at home but I sit here in my room ,crushed by deadlines and health indisposition(Slight asthmatic attack which resolved) listening to her favourite song. This song talks about the creation's beauty, God's greatness and the celebration of the difference we as human beings enjoy and yet when we come before our God the creator all the differences melt into one resounding praise of gratitude to Him. Somethings remain with me this season. When my dad was getting sicker,one day he slipped out from bed as usual to accompany mom to the kitchen and he could not get up.As he grew older he found it difficult but never missed doing it because he knew mom would find it difficult without his help. The last conversation I heard him make was the one I overheard while talking to my brother.His question was ,'Is mom allright?' I did not know that he was not all there then. The entire month I was there ,mom would pick ...

Is there really a closure when a parent dies? My dad passed when he was 90 and I ,his youngest am 49 years old.I had an unusual journey this season.The covid pandemic rages on.The government seems to be see-sawing between closing and opening the lockdown.In the meantime I could spend three whole months with my family.It was a sort of time we have never had the opportunity to spend since our childhood.We have been away in boarding schools ,colleges and our work places  with short spells during vacation at home.Our father taught us a lot of things about the bird and the bees.My sister and I often wondered to ourselves what a blessed time it had been with parents understanding the nature which has been given to us in bountiful by the Lord who cares. Less than a week after I left home,my dad fell ill and passed away.With the strict covid rules I had just finished a week of quarantine in my workplace and it was time for me to pack my bags again homeward bound .My dad was ill.The s...