What gives

Nine year old Ashok Bhuiya was brought into the outpatient gasping for breath.There was a history of snake-bite and he was unconcious.As soon as he entered the ACU we intubated him and put him on the ventilator and then went on to treat his snake-bite symptoms.Normally snake-bite with neurotoxic features respond quite fast to rapid resuscitation,so much so that after the bolus doses of ASV and the support drugs they often get up instantly and throw off the endotracheal tubes-I have seen quite a few of these cases.Ashok Bhuiya however was an abberation.His vitals were holding ,he was delirious and his sats were not too good. Even after the full dose of ASV ,he continued to struggle for breath so we kept him on the ventilator,overnight.The next day in the morning i noticed his level of conciousness was good but he still did not have his breathing back.After disconnecting the ventilator for a while and encouraging him to breath on his own,after ten breaths or so he asked to be connected ...

Today the boys on their daily round of the blocks for tuberculosis work were narrating an incident of cold murder in bright daylight.Apparently an old score had to be settled and so a young man was tied up with a rope at all angles and dragged across the tough Manatu road behind a motor cycle-the man apparently died!I thought such things only happened in hindi movies.By the time they reached the place the area was infested with police personals. This is a tough world in tough times.This is Palaumu for you living up to it's reputation of being the 'bloodiest district in India'. Eight years ago when I was posted to Tumbagara that was how I had been introduced to my destination of work.That was the only information I had about the place peppered with heavy advices to decline the offer.Much to the chagrin of all involved my leading was clear.I don't regret my decision one bit even as I get ready to say adieu to the place and all the memories I have of the place. I would...

Grace,Vikram,Angel and joshua are here in the campus for a day. What a joy it is to have your old friends around. Everyone is as we were -more mature perhaps but exactly the same. We sat,we talked ,we bullied each other to high heavens and we did what we are best at 'just being friends!'

Deep from the recesses of my mind I dig back fourteen years in the retrospect,a medico trying to make sense of a culture so foreign to the one I was brought up in.It was the days of intense heat,mosquitoes,ghugnis,rickshaws and manjula the maid who was forever on the tree-top.Sitting out on metal beds to get that whiff of a gale that frittered past ,watching,waiting,chatting,living a life so different and yet so enlightening. The smell of formalin reeking through the perspiration of the fifty heads poring over a dead body,pulling a muscle here,a nerve there,memorising,agonising over some nameless body parts. An illiac bone used as a sun-shade,femur a support.....it went on...it never seemed to end.The day I could chuck the bones was the happiest day of my life and the night before the anatomy exams the most harrowing. What kept me going were those poetry sessions that could flourish where-else but bengal-it was a life-line indeed.Nothing was spared,not the mosquitoes,not the ricksha...

i was just chatting on the net with my sister when she asked me what's with you these days! i found myself subconciously answering her-'nothing much!just relishing the last few days of 'intense Palaumu'!. Intense Palaumu!!-why did i write that? That has sure set me thinking.I need to mull over it a bit.

Went to visit a lawyer in the courts in Daltonganj-Layers and layers of papers and people -jampacked in a room where every other person can eaves-drop on what is discussed.The black-coated entities chatting,watching-beady eyed,chewing paan(I dread this!),writing the clerical languages in pile after pile of worn-out files. The case in hand was discussed ,even as I started dissecting the case and putting forward the relevant points,he kept butting in to say'that is what I am going to argue in court!' I wondered if I should fight the case myself! The case against the institution seemed extremely flimsy,the opponent hardly one,but a case nevertheless! Somewhere in the process of getting things clarified ,it struck me that three years in the administration had indeed changed me.Who would have thought i would be so comfortable discussing a case in a court-house with a room full of beady-eyed,pan chewing babus watching your every move ! My father would be surprised!

The monsoons came two days too late this year. I looked up to the skies in desperation for that flurry of dark clouds that precede rain... There were patches every where-we would but gear up for the rains at night and a gale would blow it away. We started praying...and we looked up to the skies in expectation...the first day...the second day ,we the officers did a cooperate prayer...no rains still....the third day we prevailed in prayer and left it to the lord...the rain came and oh it came....eversince there has been continuos mercy falling in gallons...steadily...cleaning the skies,trees,ground and our thirst parched souls.I actually cannot get enough of it.Even at the middle of the night I find myself cocking my ears to make sure that the sound I hear is that of the water on the roof...steadily hitting the roof,....falling ,falling,falling! I put my sleepy head back on the pillow satisfied that it is raining. Oh the simple joys of answered prayers!