What gives

I was to travel to Kolkotta,the city I have always raved about.The shaktipunj express in the AC class reads all booked.I board the train and what do I find ?-the TTs have booked the berths -there is heavy selling and buying inside the train for a goodnight's sleep.What's more the passengers all seem to be ready for it and obliging-I heard the TT label these passengers as his Laxmi(the goddess of wealth).The night's journey takes me to the taxi stand-I find the taxi driver's pestering right from the moment I disembark-their asking price is anywhere between 150Rs to 250Rs.I manage to wheedle my way to the pre-paid booth ,the man behind the counter asks for Rs 80 and does not have a change for Rs five hundred-suggests I take a taxi without the receipt and pay the meter charge-there is a taxi driver behind the counter monitering it all.I threaten to lodge a complaint-he brings out the change and allots a taxi immediately.On my return journey again in Howrah I see an inspect...

I have been reading a book on Kanchendjonga by a contemporary journalist in Sikkim.Kanchendjonga-a  sacred summit.It made a compelling reading for the fact that it has been written by a sikkimese for one and it is a farely comprehensive ,well-researched book written with a heart of an insider(i am not too fond of the word normally). As I travelled home from Siliguri to my place in the north,I felt nostalgic and  sad.The beautiful drive home by the riverside was different with grotesque colonys of similar looking cold cement flats ,electrified to the hilt covering the prime lands near the river.Dams had been built and the normally turbulent ,spirited and wild  teesta had been reigned in to contain the waters-it looked strangely still waiting to be exploited to the hilt .As I travelled further north I saw a sight which gave me a reasonable amount of clarity and insight into the situation.I saw a group of young lepcha youths working on the road-side as labourers.I was so stunned by the si...

The train from delhi reached two hours after mid-night.The station was a sea of humanity prostrate in the sweet world of dreams and beyond.I deb0arded,lugged my luggage to the exit and looked around for a familiar face come to receive me- there was none.I made a space for myself on the floor and sat on the steps while I called the hospital.The driver had slept off .It was an hour's drive away.I got myself a cup of sweet tea and sat down to enjoy it and the utter peace with a book by Ravi Zach. I was deep into it when I noticed an old lady take a seat next to me.She was apparently my patient and was waiting for the dawn.She lived in the village next to mine.She gave me company for the moment.Tapeshwar came by an hour later-it seemed too short a time.We took the lady and her son to their village and got back to the hospital in the early hour of the morning. There were several things that surprised me about myself. 1.I wasn't anxious when the expected was not forthcoming. 2.I enjo...

My soul yearneth for you-my creator A deep,deep hole in my heart, I live during the day I barely do, Going through the motions, Endless,meaningless.... Where and when do I find myself closest to you? It is not in the comfort of the home and the familiar, where most parts of me just lulls to sleep, It's not in the luxuries of the world,success and entertainments, Fleeting,dissapearing,pathetic and tragic in it's illusive temporariness. It is not even in the comfort of my friends, and loved ones where I feel accepted and almost close. Amazingly,I feel closest to you amidst conflicts, broken people,broken lives-torn by diseases,worldly poverty. I feel closest to you when I overstep the boundary- When I have nothing but you.

Ally was my room-mate from my post-grad years.I stayed with her for two full years in a place which was so far away from my roots and yet so close to my heart in the border between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In simple words,she was a great girl-beautiful inside-out. She belonged to an extremely conservative jacobite family-her father was a christian jacobite priest.She had studied in a malyali medium school all her life-had never ventured out of Kerala till she got into madrass medical college for her graduation.Five years of medical school was where she started learning english.By the time we met ,she used to rattle off in english like she was born speaking it.She was a prayer warrier ! We parted ways after my post-grad ,I came to the north and she went back to Kerala mostly to be with her mother who had widowed quite some years back.There were occasional emails . Most of my roomies were going through the rounds of arranged marriage hip-hop.Every other week-end they would come back with s...

Dealing with the tuberculosis patients has been so far an extremely rewarding ,educating and nourishing experience.Yesterday the boys came to me with a complaint of a thirteen year old who they suspected were chucking the medicines instead of eating them.I called the boy into the clinic.An extremely likeable village boy with a cricket cap breezed into my OPD smiling widely.I couldn't help smiling back.Getting back to business I had to be firm with him and had to explain the consequences of his not eating the medicines and it's implications.I saw the sunshine go out of his eyes even as the magnitude of his mistake struck him. Today he came back to the OPD to collect his medicine . He told me a little about himself.He is from a village around 100 kms away from Satbarwa town. He lost both his parents and three older siblings to the disease.All he has left is his six year old sister who cooks in his uncle's place to earn her keeps in the village.Sakindra Bhuiya ,as the boy is ...

Jesus during his ministry on earth called one person out specifically for the task of looking after his sheep.That was Peter. When Jesus appears before his disciples after the crucification he calls out to Simon thrice to look after his sheep. What was Simon Peter’s qualification? He was rash,impulsive,quick to anger,had earned the reprimand of Jesus ‘get behind me satan’.He prophesied undying love and loyalty to Jesus.Slept through Jesus’lonely and intense prayer in the garden of Gethsemene.Denied Jesus thrice on the night of crucification. What was his qualification? His only qualification lay in Simon’s brokenness and his genuine answer to the question Jesus puts before him-‘Do you love me Simon?’he said ‘yes lord ‘and he meant it.The third time his answer goes a step further when he says ‘you know everything lord!’ If there had been no denial, there would have been no brokenness,if there was no brokenness there would have been no repentance,if there had been no repentance the mini...