What gives

Praying for Afghanistan is one thing but knowing what to pray for is entirely another thing.In this world where nothing seems to be what it should be and everything is perceived through the coloured lens of the rich ,the powerful  and sometimes twisted,one can only groan with the spirit and ask the Lord to lead us to make the prayers after His own heart.Having said that ,we need to pray for believers in Afghanistan. Whilst in our family prayer ,where the children have been learning from the gospel of John and has just finished the discourse between the samaritan woman and Lord Jesus some weeks back and Lord Jesus talks about the times when ' true believers will worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.'....yesterday while praying my sister was deeply burdened  to pray for Afghanistan.I just realised how cold my heart had become and yet how compassionate and kind the Spirit of the Lord was.he is able to get through the boundaries,distances,walls borders,jails,to unction and lead...

I am getting a hang of my violen ,not only did I realise I wasn't rosening my violen enough ,I was also trying too hard .As the sound started coming I am slowly flowing with the ebb and flow and getting the hang of the instrument.One knows when one is getting it and I did ,this afternoon.I have folded it for the day. As a way of conversation I told my sister where I am at with the instrument and she volunteered an information,'Isn't violen known as the queen of instruments?'Ofcourse I immediately googled and found that piano is the king of instruments and there seems to be a bit of competition for the queen's crown...the organ seems to be the favourite. I also got my dancing feet back .Chris Tomlin's 'God's great dance floor' is quite the morning pick me up song.I remember several years ago watching it live in the O2 arena in London.I just could not get myself to get my feet moving then. I am also digging my heels into 'Ootie preserved'by Mol...

 I have bought myself a violen and am learning the art of learning things from the beginning.I remember just holding one of the youngster's violen in Mumbai and trying to produce some kind of sound.Much to my chagrin not a single sound came out.I had that fear when I started off with a brand new violen ,'the all too happy to see a customer', music enthusiast handed over to me when I visited the shop in between the lockdown. My sister bought a guitar for her wards,so I had the added responsibility to teach them some guitar which I dutifully did by using the you-tube. When I sat back to assimilate my music I had to work on it quiete meticulously.The bow was made of real horse hair ,not sure how they get hold of it.Everyday I am learning to put the pieces together in parts.I have been rosening my violen dutifully and have started getting some kind of sound.Everyday is a discipline and I will get there someday,till then I have something to strive to.To be fair my maternal grand...

Has been an interesting one month.I am getting to see some text book cases which I have never seen in my twenty years of practise. The other day I saw a lady who had a palpable Virchow's gland with Cullen's sign .She has been sent for lymph node biopsy and a CT Chest and abdomen. The lady had been admitted with very severe jaundice and altered sensorium but turned out to have Scrub typhus .She responded well to Doxycycline.The jaundice cleared and she hop-skipped into the OPD for a review.She was eating well and looking well so I thought I would have a quick lookover although she was asymptomatic.I had suspected something may be amiss while she was admitted and had requested a colleague to do an USG since her jaundice was predominantly direct hyperbilirubinemia .It did not flag a concern but this morning I decided to review the case in detail before I gave her a thumbs up sign and there it was two sinister looking markers defying all clinical status.It was my first Cullen's...

 It has been a month now since I joined the government service as a physician .This is my home-town.I am slowly but gradually getting to meet all the old people and new.It has been an interesting month.my esteemed collegues have been kind enough to fill in in the aberrations that seem to surround the cases that I see here.There is Molly my dermatologist friend who never fails to support me with dermatology consults, Dr Augustine supports me with cardiology consults,Dr Santosh ,Dr Ashita ,Dr Hansdak and one time I even called up Roshine in Makunda to find out if she had seen a case of a herb-poisoning.AIIMS narcotic cell seemed clueless. I see a lot of alcohol related problems..encephalopathy,variceal bleed,withdrawal,fatty liver .I have seen a few freak constrictive pericardites with calcified pericardium,scrub typhus,IHDs,large number of Gout,RA ,NCDs,SLE,probable AAA,cardiomyopathies and the list goes on. I am doing my own bit of helping out by continuing to help my juniors back ...

  It has been almost a month since I started work from home.Working from home and at home is a totally different cup of tea,I watch my fragile mother hobble around and I get a tug in my chest somewhere at the thought of having to leave her and get back to what I have to get back to and suddenly I feel a sense of relief when the understanding sinks in that I don't have to get back to anything.So I try to spend time with her as safely as I can in between my hospital work.It is lovely watching her creativity at work as she enjoys her gardening ,creating dresses for my sister,kitchen towels designed for comfort. Julie ,the labrador is a new addition to our family .She is an intelligent creature that craves human contact.If she knoiws she is going to be shut out from the room she will leave her meal half way and come running towards us.and stay put.Every meal has to be shared with her.I settled with my queen cake and a cup of tea on a chair after a much deserved run to the hospital to s...

Varanasi airport has always supplied me with some good books.This time round I found two,one of which I am yet to open.''There's Gunpowder in the air 'by Manoranjan Byapari which was originally written in Bengali but translated to english by Arunava Sinha and the second is ,'The Marigold story',Indira Gnadhi and others, by Kum Kum Chadha.The airlines person called me away to check my guitar case because they could not figure out what a capo was in the pocket of the case.My short flight to Delhi was uneventful. The flight from Delhi to Guhawati was like a lot of flights in my life,'moving with the flow'.The airhostesses were very kind to give me a whole aisle of front row seats which were unoccupied so I had a lot of leg-room,a seat to keep my handbag and the comfort to muse with the clouds and the lights below. I watched the fascinating view of the clouds from above through rain ,lightening, twilight and the night. The lights when viewed from above had s...