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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

Psalm 100- “Worship the Lord with gladness ,come before Him with joyful songs.” It had been a dry winter.The pond in front of our hospital dried out .Everyday the ducks would dutifully come out from their shed,walk up to the place where the pond should have been and would graze around. The first shower of the monsoon came down heavily overnight.When we walked to the hospital we saw that the pond had rapidly filled up.We saw the band of ducks waddle it’s way down the hill to the pond and get into the water like it was business as usual.Some of them continued to peck at the dirt by the side. There was a white swan amongst them who was distinct.As soon as it touched base on water ,it spread it’s wings and went into a flurry of dance like movement,it dove deep into the water came back up ,spread it’s wings   and just enjoyed the water oblivious to everything   even as we watched, fascinated. It painted in my mind’s eye the picture of King David dancing before the arc of God, wors

  Job 9 vs 9 ‘Who made the Bear,Orien and the Plaides,and the chambers of the south?’   During the Covid pandemic ,even as we struggled, we came face to face with our limitations as a doctor. I had never seen the kind of suffering,confusion and desperation.   As the pandemic raged on,I keenly observed the stark contrast between what was going on all around and the pace of nature. Each morning I would take time to lurk in the garden .The birds would be singing ,busybodies flitting around,squirrels would scamper around leisurely nibbling bits and pieces from the ground.The flowers in different colours would boldly bloom unapologetically.The mango trees ,laden with fruit would bend over with abundance of fruit.The Mogra tree in full bloom would beam with resplendent joy. I would take in everything with a heart full of gratitude to the Father who lovingly created it ,timed to perfection ,in perfect harmony, before venturing out into the dark confusion of the pandemic world. I

 They were an elderly couple and every month they came to me for their diabetic medication. Like a lot of my regulars I tried to make their time in the outpatient as simple as possible.Recognising them by sight,I would cut the line because of their age and the familiarity of their medical problem to hurry things for them.They had a lot of questions but they continued to come to us beyond my absence of six months during the covid lockdown.One day I saw them after a gap of one month and I found that Achala had lost a significant weight.Her diabetes was well controlled so I started digging further and found that she had had a bad bout of loose stools.Clinical examination did not show any pointers for concern so I decided to keep a watch on her weight. Each time she came to us her weight was the first thing I would check and the husband would be all ears and demanding to know how it was going.She gained back what she had lost.Whenever she weighed herself she would beam at me with relief. T