Meeting a friend after many years

My wife and I made a special trip to Houston to meet my friend, we studied together in the Madras Medical college. I had my own reservations about our meeting as not less than three decades have passed. He is a renowned Gastroenterologist,living here for more than 30 years. But when we met the bonhomie was so great that pleasure and satisfaction overwhelmed us. we talked this & that; that& this, we sailed back to nostalgia (to the boredom of others who were with us)


It was 1961, the freshers around 40 in number assembled in MMC with dreams in every ones face.The welcome address by some bigwig of the college was so tough and discouraging quoting difficulties in the red-fort(anatomy block),the exam system etc.It was no surprise after every examination me & my friend used to dash to Tiruppathi with prayers(prayers had been answered-that is what is still a mystery)we stayed as house surgeons in the qrs with another friend whose father was a Rly DMO. Towards the end of training on his persuation all 3 of us applied for Rly'. The irony is the DMO's son never joined Rlys,the other worked for a couple of months,and I stuck on till I retired in 2004. The other two are in US doing very well and their success gives me immense happiness.


My bro-in law who works in Houston came with us along with his family; My son could'nt make it.We met his wife who is such a good host that we felt at home. His daughter was there,a budding doctor,multilinguist and a very friendly person. We hope we should continue our interractions thru mail & meetings when he goes to India or I come here.

My visit to my old friend was a very memorable event.

The World is flat

I became a 'curious George' when I saw on the racks of the Odessey bookshop the book"The world is flat". Is there any new scientific revealation? But when I had the chance to read the book I realised how nicely the phrase is used by the author Tom Freedman in a symbolic way to explain the globalisation. He traces the history of economic revolution in three phases. the first sea-faring adventures of people like Columbus centuries ago for commercial purposes.Second the Industrial revolution of 18th century and the third software revolution. when texts,voice,etc could be stored and retieved and digitised (windows) and anything digitised can be sent thru satelite or fibroptic cable (netscape) the revolution has started its voyage never to look back. He nicely discusses the irony of Indias luck as a result of Y2K boom and over-investment of fibroptic cable.Thank to these development we Indians enjoy the prime position in software and cheap telecom fascility.The 11/9 when the Berlin wall was razed to the ground , the seclusive world opened up.(walls razed and the windows raised and opened. Nilankani of Infosys terms this as the playing field is levelled. the author puts it as the (round) world (with ups & downs of obstruction and hesitation removed) has become flat(flattened to a level playing field)
The political,beurocratic & management concepts have changed from 'control & command' to 'connect &coordinate'. The capital in the present scenario is 'knowledge & skill. Thus Indians,Chinese,East Asia, to some extent the East Europe are taking the lead. Outsourcing,outshoring,supply chain, opensourcing,insourcing,informing,software flow are all becoming important. The developed and the developing counties will mutually benefit if only the economic game is played intelligently.
"The gazel wakes up every morning with determination to run faster than the fastest lion;
The lion also wakes up with determination to run faster than the slowest running gazel lest it should lose its prey and starve to death."
This anacdote holds good for the countries in the flat world. The moral is whether developed or developing country ,has to run to keep pace with the fast progressing technology as the flat world has given level playing field and equal oppertunity"
This is what I understood from the book. He has given enormous information in a simple and elegant way. This book is one of the 'must read' category.

A book of interest

The book-"what is so great about america" is an informative reading,The author
D'Souza brings out certain anthropological factors for various changes in the
history of the world.Ethnocentricity(a larger term of self centredness) he attributes
to the western world overtaking well developed civilisations. Ethnocentricity
prevented the nations to be seclusive,ignorant of happenings outside and not keeping
pace with the developments outside their nation.Other areas like colonisation and
slavery caused suffering to those under them;but brought about good fortune to the
descendents.eg; African Americans brought as slaves;many countries as colonies under
diffeerent rulers improved their lot later-eg C hina,India.
what Indians in US want? to lead Indian ways of life at American standards.Cultural
beliefs,values etc are different in America to those of Asia. But the early settlers
merged well esp the whites. (melting pot) but later immigrants are maintaining the
ethnic individuality.
Is America an Egaliterian society? the answer is 'yes' & 'no'. there is no equality
in economic terms but there is semblance of it in the social arena!
what the modern America stand for- "Individuality and freedom" probably at the
expense of "tradition and values"-may be a huge ransom! C an Asian immigrants afford
it-may be not, at least the present generation; who are more indians than those in
India itself.what is worrying is- what happens here today happens in India 20 yrs
later!Let good things happen but not the normless social order.

The endurance

After the acute phase,that means the autonomic system got stabilised and any recurrence avoided shifted to the special ward.Main stay of treatment was to give physiotherapy. three sessions a day.to start with only passive movements.then active assisted;It took two months to make any attempt to active movements.sitting was a problem;turning was a problem;grip was a problem.name any movement there was problem;added to that was pain.explanation-weak muscle unable to cover and cushion the joints and bones.I learnt to hold a pencil and could make only circles.all my transactions done thru LTI only.I never imagined I would be reduced to a
'kainattu' one day!bank,rly admn,IT dept etc all have my thumb impression during that period!Very very slowly some movements appeared probably after three months.Therapist will make me stand - ofcourse he will hold me tight from behind-feet will appear to be nailed to the floor;knees will buckle;back will be wobbling-in short it was like making a 6month old child stand.By constant practice ,thanks to that excellent physiotherapist, progress was seen but very slow.A few steps holding a walker which appeared to me a big achievement. At this stage I decided to attend my niece's wedding.with all medical help with walker I went in a car, walked to theplace from entrance and sat down.The whole process took 1/2 hour which a normal person would do in 5 minutes.This xce was very painful and physically devastating but gave me lot of confidence.That day I walked with my will power than with any muscle power. Sometime later another nephew's marriage I attended -this time I was promoted from walker to walking stick!Eight months later I went back to Cal with walking stick on one side and a man to hold me on the other side.cannot get up from sqatting position
pain continued;with an added problem of muscle cramps.With all the handicaps I joined duty and went thru the stress and strain of the job as I cannot escape on the pretext of my disability.The Neurologist at madras said that he knew of two of his patients recovered and now globe trotting.
But I never anticipated at that time that I would travel once to Spain and four trips to US with this state of physical condition.Whenever people ask about my condition I tell them that 'I am independent but not normal'. this statement is absolutely true because I can look after myself,I can drive the car,carry a small bag, eat like others and can write. But my foot drop ,facial palsy and the stoop are obvious;I cannot walk long distance;cannot run to avoid an approaching danger as my muscle power in lower limbs are only 3, where it should be 5;my small muscles of the hands are wasted so I need a spoon to eat our traditional meal.with all these you can be happy
if you have caring and loving family.I gave them love and affection, now they are giving them back to me with interest!

Air travel on a strecher

My air travel was an experience. I was taken in a stretcher and placed on the floor (after removing a row of three seats in the front). People who pass by put on a sympathetic look.Lying down I could see only legs and nothing else;shoes with socks,without socks,sandals,slippers and a couple of bare feet! when we landed, Chennai was wet with heavy rain.when you are sick the self pity overtakes;I imagined the whole place crying over my misfortune. But I should say that a couple of my doctor friends from Perambur hosp,hospitalambulance staff,number of my relatives were there to receive me;some of them brokedown too seeing my pathetic condition-toneless body,bilateral facial palsy giving a grotesque appearance;my talk was so much unintelligible that when I tried to thank them for their concern, no one could make out what I was trying to convey which only made them more sympathetic.I reached the hospital horizontally.My days in Cal was more of anxiety about survival.Now I knew that stage has passed but anticipation of the gloom of my future.will I be able to walk or wheel-chair bound,still worse become horizontal hariharan.Pain-so annoying,how to describe except to say that it is PAINFUL.I knew the ordeal has just begun.some of the handicaps will remain probably I should learn to live with them.Life is not going to be the same anymore.
Today when I think that I was lying on my back not one day or two days more than three months-100 days and unable to move even the finger tip and needed help for survival is mind boggling. My incapacity caused physical and psychological inconvenience to many, esp my wife whose black hair started greying.During this period I learned all about GBS, muscle actions by discuing with the medicos and somrone reading to me as I cannot even move my fingers leave alone hold anything like a book or journal.
Good hearted relatives and friends sent us food regularly and looked after our other needs.when you are sick you want to see people which is a common psychology;I had regular visitors.This day of the wk this time so and so will come-to that extant I could say.otherwise we would have been depressed by boredom.During this period some of the strained relationships also got smoothened out.

Dark days

It is long time since I wrote ie nearly 2 yrs.Not that I got overwhelmed by old memories of those dark days of my total physical incapacity, but due to other logistical reasons preoccpying my thoughts.
I spent 15 days of ordeal both physical & psychological in spite of the best treatment given with care&affection.I lost my muscle power from neck to toe to "O". some movements possible only in the face that too with all different grades of palsy causing grotesque appearance on trying to speak
andspeech unintelligible.The greatest worry was how to communicate if were to be put on ventilater.Cant even make gestures.so I told my wife if I open the eye & stare- I am calling.number of blinkings were given meanings like
one-thirsty,two pain,three-call doctor etc. Fortunately inspite of the severe attack(axon degeneration,they told me later)breathing got spared.the most annoying symptom was pain-pulling pain,dull aching pain,shearing pain &so on at different places of my anatomy;especially around the joints& the
extensor muscle areas.Physicians debated for treatment plasmapheresis vs Immunoglobulins and decided on the latter.After the course I was shifted to perambur rly hosp at chennai for social&logistic reasons.The medicines,air fare& other connected expenses were borne by the railways.I would like to mention here that the Rlys is govt org making profit in transport business and at the same time functions as a welfare organisation.They provide comprehensive health care to its 1.5 million employees,their family,and dependents.spend 800 crores of rupees for the medical dept. I cannot but compare this with very poor health delivery system in one of the most developed countries(USA)when I stayed with my son on tourist visa for long periods on a few trip -ofcourse 5,6 years after this tragic episode.

The ordeal

It was a strange experience. all along entering vertcally into the place & now a royalentry lying down on a well cushioned couch.everymovement was painful inspite of great care & skill in tansporting my limpless body on to the bed.my foremost anxiety was how to communicate when my voice goes off if I were to go in for ventilatory support.I was so powerless,by then, to make flicker of movement with restos my body.This anxiety made me hyperventilate&maintain my vital capacity.But this was mistaken by doctors as paradoxical respiration. They were gettig ready for the ventilator- there was only one&if it fails neither can I be weaned off nor another readily available in the city. That was the status of Calcutta at that time.

My tryst with GBS

We have just returned from a hectic holiday at Andaman inthe pleasant scenic beauty and friendly climate.I need to buy some reliable woolen clothing and so went for shopping that saturday evening.when I returned I felt my toes felt numb.what a chill weather I cursede and went to bed. The morning finger tips also were tingling. I attributed again to the cold. Some doctors from a neighbouring hospital came to invite me to the inaguration of their medical conference. As I walked from the bedroom to the drawing to receive them my knees buckled. Some how managed and chatted with them over cup of tea;hand was feeling funny. During lunch I couln't take my hand easily to my mouth-some weakness. Now I know the diagnosis but I discussed with the physician who came home to see me all possible differential diagnosis less severe(denial) though both of us knew the fact.A few hours later the consultant Neurologist advised immediate admission to hospital and made categorial diagnosis and said 'facts have to be faced' I am struck by 'gullain Barre syndrome'. I knew life is not going to be same in the days to come.

1975 APRIL- entered into the Railway hospital fresh after my training in psychiatry.Dr.Cherian, the head of the hospital called me and asked me to examine a patient who happened to be the daughter or daughter in law of one of the top brass in railway. This young woman dashed her car in the compound wall and swooned, since then unable to use her limbs on one side. In my anxiety to prove to my boss and academic orientation( fresh from the academic environment) I examined her in detail and wrote a very nice case report that she was suffering from 'Hysteria' & not anything organic. All along I did not notice the frown on the face of the top man's wife. She went thru the case papers inspite of my protest and made such a hue and cry that a junior guy comes and calls my daughter a 'nut'. All the demi gods in the heirarchy looked down upon me as if I committed a crime. Dr Cherian asked me the details and went thru the case sheet ;convinced of the facts of the case managed the situation. Railways like defence is very rank conscious and the wives of bigwigs throw their weight too much.But Cherian,in those days was a legendary figure in medical field especially in the Rly circles that his support saved my skin. ( I came to know that the young woman doctor shopped in at least a dozen hospitals ,undergone all possible investigation for organicity; but original diagnosis confirmed. I do not know whether she was treated for hysreria) After this episode Dr.Cherian wanted to test my capability and was given a Neurology case for examination. This fifty year old fair slighty plumpy grand mother was complaining of benumbed feeling in her fingers and toes and said she was so weak that she lost balance attempting to stand. Ten minutes of examination the diagnosis was made-'Gulllain Barre'syndrome. The boss was pleased. My stay in that hospital to pursue my speciality was confirmed. I never knew that the same 'Gullain Barre' is going to cause havoc in my life twenty years later.

1995 JANUARY-Monday
I was entering the I.C.U in a stretcher where I used to walk into the place with many doctors on tow couple of days earlier.

The doctor's illness

The book was written by Dr. Clair Osborne, titled 'Over my head'. She is a physian who meets with an accident-head injury and loses her memory. She vividly describes her handicap and how she strives hard to get back to normal.We have read about 'acute transient global amnesia'But here it was probbably 'autobbiographical global amnesia'-how she re learns her own self and her environment is interesting reading.when I read the psychosocial handicap she experienced I was reminded of the physical and social handicap I faced when I was struck by 'Gullain Barre' syndrome.
1995 JANUARY - cold and windy in Calcutta;new experience for the Madras chaps who are used to only hot and hotter weather;not 4or6 seasons elsewhere

Paradox

The dictionary meaning is "seemingly absurd or self contradictory though true".LET'S SEE BELOW SOME PARADOXES.
Safty experts say that school bus passengers should be BELTED
Iraqi HEAD seeks ARMS
Henkel PASSES away
squad helps dog BITE victims
enraged cow injures farmer WITH AXE
miners refuse to work AFTER DEATH

you find in children books characters like GRACEFUL witch
India is a poor country where RICHMEN LIVE.

THEN SOME ONE ASKED -so India would be like heaven. the speaker said heaven or hell decided by other factors. what are they?
Heaven if you have American salary,British house,Chinese food and Indian wife
hell-if you have an American wife,,British food,Chinese house,and Indian salary

Speaking of English

Coming to english-each of the English speaking country speaks in its own way.But only in India the protogonists of english language fuss over the accent and criticise.The Indian Engllish is well known. In one of the books (lonely planet-guide to the country, people their customs and habits) the author says Indian English is for communicating among different language nspeaking Indians-which purpose it serves well. In Amerca there are people from many many countries speaking in different accent and people here understand. Americans talk slow and swallow some words and prolong syllables. If you watch carefully it is not difficult. Likewise they also have cues to understand different accent from different countries.Trying to imitate their way of talking will only be perceived by them as yet another accent or slang from that country.It is also difficult to simulate.for eg the champions in India call the children book as Enid Blighton but this proper noun here is pronounced as 'Eenid'. Sometimes the puritanism may land you in trouble.If you go to a hotel in a resort in India asking for a "sweet" you will end up in the freezing cold with some candy in hand(sweet) as the bellboy knows only "suite"(soot") he goes by the spelling. So also you will have to compromise your english if you are particular to get the delicious steak -pronounce it as per spelling and not "stake".when I was sick with "Gullain Barre" syndrome I told a doctor friend who came to see me "Gian Barre" as it is pronounced to which he said "some peculiar disease"& got the diagnosis when I pronounced it "Gullan barre". Having said this much a word of caution. grammar is important. Otherwise there will be problems. sometime back I received a leave letter from an employee like this."grant me leave 2 days to go to my village to dispose off my house there along with my wife. The other day on our way to airport we saw a name board of a lady doctor "name degrees etc-next line SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES"

From US many toll free numbers go to India replied by Indians sporting American names and the unavoidable "American accent" taught to them by call centre instructors.I dont know whether guys here mind it but Indians should encourage it as this means American dollar to INDIA & most sought after jobs in India. All big economics. You should know our American returned economist on a tour of I ndian villages. In one village he saw a shepherd with a herd of sheep. he wanted to take one small sheep but unwiiling to pay. so told the shepherd if I tell you the number in this herd without counting will you give one free. the other agrre. He used his comp made calcullations & correctly told him the number. the shephed asked him to take one of his choice. our man took one. then shepherd asked if I tell you correctly your profession will you give it back-to which economist agreed. shepherd asked him are you an economist. Astonished he asked how he made out. to which shepherd said you wanted one of my young sheep but you have taken my dog. that is how I made out you must be an economist full of theories.

Language

Some people have a flair for language. It is said that one of our former Prime minister was proficient in a dozen or more languages.Some of my relatives & friends talk 5or 6 languages fluently.Language is not my cup of tea.my mother tongue Tamil is quite good and have enough knowledge to surf even simple literary work.But I cannot vouch for the other two viz. english and hindi.My schoolingwas in tamil medium school in a rural town of Tamilnadu. There, English was taught like a subject with lot of rote learning with no incentive or training to speak or converse. H indi was optional anyway(the two languages considered important for an Indian for his future). There was negative sentiment against hindi that the school authrities passivelly discouraged students learning hindi.the hindi period very often converted to spl coaching class for composite maths(by the way what's composite maths?) & I along with others in general maths with optional hindi(not the sophisticated French) are considered non entities.It suited us without realising the future truama in store for us.You may wonder how I escaped hindi, working 36 yrs in central service.when they sent a circular whether your mother tongue is hindi or have you passed the spl exams in hindi or passed school final with hindi as a subject. I promptlly tickeed the last one.even though I hardly attended a few classes & learnt only the alphabets. A few yrs later another lr asking whether I can read & write hindi-for which I said yes because I can. But I was'nt asked whether I understood, can speak etc.Thus I escaped.I reralised the handicap when I was transferrede to Calcutta with jurisdiction extending to hindi heartland like Madhyapradhesh,Bihar etc. In one of the meetings the chief enginner was asking for 20 lakhadies- my poor hindi could not differentiate it from ladkies. Started wondering probably track laying is such hard job ,the chief engineer is engaging "cheer girls"to elevate the mood of the workers as we see in places like WWF,Olympic stadium! My wife wanted coconut & told the peon to get, but was shocked to find him followed by a maid servant. she realised the mistake that instead of saying 'nariel' she said 'nari'! once the clerks' tables in my office had a new board 'work station' on enquiry it was revealed that 'bus station where buses stop, train stations where trains stop and work station where work stopped as a protest against some administrative decion taken by me.A meeting with union was called.they would speak in hindi only.My officer on medical administratio who helps me in all technical administration told me that whatever they say she would try to translate & I will simply say 'teek hai'. things will be sorted out later when tempers cooled.But the event went haywire. All the guys started , shouting,accuing; there was no room for translation. whenever I got a chance I diligently saying "teek hai'. At one point all of them stopped talking & went away in a hush. I asked what changed their mind. I was told that they threatened to burn my office, to which also I said 'teek hai' That bewildered them & left to take the next course of action, Ignorance sometimes saves the situation. Apart from some skirmishes here and there my stay at Calcutta was excellent; the best in my service career to both of us. From the day we reached there we liked the people there-frank,intelligent,cultured and highly mannered.Their flair for finearts is superb.What is pecculiar about them is their addiction for FISH.Shoba De in one of her columns write that the problem with her husband(a bengali) is that he wants that the fish bought for the meal to be 'smilling'. Jumpa Lahiri in her prize winning book Interpreter of maladies says MRS Sen goes to a far off place in Manhatten against odds to buy a 'smiling fish' What an irony for the dead fish to smile.

U.S Presidents

11/2 USA has selected its new president. three months of election fever is over.magazines are full of this only. The heat,false promises,bickerings etc are no better than what you see in Indian election. May be more polished(is it really-doubtful-may be superficial facade) The general feeling is that whoever comes nothing grossly changes for the better to the common man- here the common man is who earns less than $30 thousands which is the majority;prtty much the same you hear in India after every election.

This is the time to travel back to get some tit-bits from the US Presidency.
George Washington started his career as a land surveyer who became the first president.
1787 American constitution was framed.

John Adams was the 2nd president.His son Quincy Adams ascended the post 30 yrs later as the 6th president.
Thomas Jafferson -an academic,wrote the declaration of independence. he built the first University of Virginia.
William Henry Harrison died a month after becoming president serving the shortest term of office of President.
His vice president John Tyler took over as president creating history which later bbecame the normal practice. a few eg LBJ,Truman.

1861 the unassuming James Polk expanded the restriced America confined to the northeast to the vast land extending from Atlantic to the Pacific.

Abraham Lincoln champion of liberation won the civil war(1865) against the fanatic southern confederacy. Assasinated same year.(1st president to be assasinated)

21 year old Francis Falson w/o president Grower Cleaveland is the youngest first lady to occupy the white house.
The youngest president of America is not Kennedy who is the 2nd youngest at 43 & not Clinton 3rd youngest at 46.the first is Theodar Roosevelt at 42yrs.held 2 terms. Teddy bear is named after him!(Teddy's-Theodar- bear)
Woodrow Wilson-president during 1st world war.He is known for his famous 19th amendment granting women to vote.
Herbert Hoover 29th president failed miserably to combat the great depressionn of 1929. It was his successor Franklin Roosvelt whose statesmanship bailed out the economy. He was the president during 2nd world war and is one of the key figures in the success and also creation of league of nations. He is the only president held office for 4 terms.

It was his successor Harry Truman who bombed Nagasagi & Hiroshima Nixon was reputed for stopping VVietnam war and normaling relations with China. But got into watergate scandal and had to resign lest he should be impeached.
Ronald Reagan president at age 69. held 2 terms; very popular and successful.

Clinton-president for 2 terms from Democratic party after a long time. probabbly after FDR OR Truman.
History speaks of Lincoln,Teddy Roosvelt,Franklin Roosvelt, Ike,Kennedy, Reagan,& Clinton as the most popular and great presidents of America.

The Prime minister across the Pacific was visiting the US President Mr.X. The PM was told by his courtiers that the English speaking president will be happy if the PM would speak the first few sentences in English.PM AGREED He was to say "how are you" on meeting him, President will say 'fine. how about you' PM will respond saying "me too". But on meeting the PM said by mistake "who are you" Surprised president humerously said 'I am Mrs Y's husband. To Which the PM immediately reflected" Me too"

Language is very tricky. not necessary at high levels but ordinary folks also can get into embarassment. Let's see how later.

Interesting history

Is it not interesting to read and learn the past.who does'nt? some express it,some dont.Let's see today some titbits from history.

Ice age 35thousand years ago,seems tohave lowered the sea level resulting in submerged land masses to comeup.Alaska and Sibberia had a land bridge.probsbly many other continents say Africa with Asia esp India is a possi bility.But later reverted back. this may explain many surprise migrations.

This is the time Neanderthal and Homoerectus faded away and the Homsapiens survived.
from 10000BC to 5000BC farming,irrigation,navigation,domesticating animals started and paved the way for future settlement and civilisation.

Earlier to 2000BC sahara was a fertile cultivable land.then climate changed to become a desert.
Mesapatomia(present Iraq) was the earlist civilisation;first drainage system was in Indus valley civilisation.
The first law code was made by the king of Babylon-Hamurabi buddism,christianity and islam started sreading to different parts of the worldsince the 2nd century onwards.

In 12th century Cholas dominated the south India and extended naval power over southeast asia.

The famous crusades in Europe was taking place c1000-1200. was it a religious war or a war for territoral expansion!

The famous chenghiskhan dominated in12th century and his empire extended from Korea in the east to kiev in europe. would he have taken a year on his horse back to cover his vast empire!

Another interesting war was 100 yrs war between England 7Frannce,JOAN OF Arc in 1429 defeated the E nglish
Marcopolo in 1271 travelled to Mongolia and China;spent 17 yrs there; he was said to have been overwhelmed by the richness and slendour of Asia.

In 1347 bubonic plague killed 1/3 of European population.

16th century-voyage of christopher columbus;moghul empire founded in India;England took charge of the church from Pope &brought under the monarchy ;soon England was declared a protestant state.

16th to 18th century- European trade followed by colonisation.

Crimian war-1853- English nurse Florence Nightingale organised war time nursing.

The 1st world war also called the great war-started by Austria Hungery invading Serbia.
this war was fought from 39 to 45.The deluded Hitler on one side and on the other side aloose combination of ALLIES-The proud Churchil of england,paranoid STALIN, pragmatic Roosewelt and others.what brought success to the Alliies-proud English determination to fight even after fall of whole Europe;wrong move of Hitler to enter Russia in winter to be dessimated;Decoder invented by the English to get in advance the plan andorders sent by Germans through their Enigma;Einstein's letter to FDR which accelerated production of atom bomb. Who can say and pin point at this later date.

When I was reading some history book my wife said "why are you 'brooding over the past' you should get knowledge which will be practical and 'task oriented'. she went on to narrate a story.An ascetic with all his religious attire got intop a boat to cross the river. He was the only passenger.so picked up a conversation with the boatman.He asked him whether he has read bagvatgita and received a negative replly. then the ascetic said to the poor boatman 'you have wasted 5years of your life; then asked about upanishad,mahabarath etc and declared that the boatman has wasted quite a bit of his life .A little later started raining and soon there was storm. Boatman asked 'swamy! you know swimming? Ascetic said no. then boatman said "you have wasted all your life" and he jumped out of the boat to swim to the safty on the other side before the boat collapsedf and washed away!

She is right but all your life you do focus learning to get job and continue to earn the livelihood.Now is the time to pursue your interest which need not be task oriented. .

Halloween

verywhere in thiDallas town halloween 'spirit' is catching up. It is better not to walk on the streets in the dark to avoid frightening spectacles in front of the houses. It passes my conception the mixture of ghosts, candy , festival for the children- too confusing. I asked a few people here the significance but they threw up their hands.I could have asked our neighbbour, Tom,a friendly American, but he is too busy with his newly got puppies-all the time playing with them-rain or shine,not even doing his favourite pastime of gardening.So I decided to refer to history. It is basically started in Ireland. In old English the word conveys something like 'sanctify'. The Celtic people in those olden days observe October 31st the end of summer and starting of the cold,starvation,and death from the next day for another 6 months. The Celtic priests would go up the hill on 31st oct night,start sacrificial fire and offer crops andanimals and spend the whole night propiciating the dead and ghosts;bring the ember,distribute to the houses to stari new cooking fire and warmth.with Roman invasion similar fest to their thenatos was observed. with advent of christianity Nov 1st was celebrated as all saints day and the next day as homage to the departed souls. Over the years all of them got mixed up to one day ie 31st oct- halloween, hence the mix up of candy,ghost.pumpkin(crops) and so on.well! history gives you insight into the present customs,behavior and rites. Talking about ghost,heaven etc I must tell you about the cricket match in heaven.Vichu and Kichu are great friends. Being residents of Chennai they are great fans of cricket,bordering fenatic lovers of the game. they played and talked more about cricket. As you know chennaites are so crazy that they take pleasure in asking one another the score. The status oriented chennai vasi does'nt mind the interaction anybody and everybody when it comes to cricket. The chennai duo were getting old and became worried that one may survive the other. so they went to a soothsayer and acquired the knowledge thru 'medium' to communicate to heaven. short while later Vichu died. Kichu spoke to him the only topic of mutual interest-do you play cricket in heaven. Vichu replied " we do play daily and you will be interested to know that tomorrow's opening bowler is going to be YOU"

Some lighter moments

There had been lighter moments also.My colleague Dr.Ramakrishnan and I were inside our chambers with patients. The chief of hospital was on rounds andentered the main hall; there was a patient standing on the threshold.He asked him whether he was going in or out-the man replied "had I known that why should I be in this department".Flustered by this the chief turned to one of the properly dressed man(probably a cured patient)and announced "I am the chief of this hospital" the man quietly replied" dont worry, initially I was also talking like this, medicines are effective you'll be all right". After this episode the chief was avoiding us for quite sometime.He used to tell every one that it was a mad house and those two greet each other "you are fine, how am I" and we were source of fun among the doctors for some time.

Annual conferences were enjoyable;good interraction with other psychiatrists and a few topics will be informative and thought provoking.As usual the banquet is fun especially if you avoid alcohol and watch the dance of alcohol.In one such evening a lady asked me whether I had seen a beutiful girl serving drinks.I asked her whether she wanted a drink or meet the girl. she said neither-"I am searching my husband!"

We conducted a few industral psych conferences in Rly hosp. In one of them my lecture was in the post lunch session-every one was in trans. to make it lively I said my lecture will be like a mini skirt-will be long enough to cover the subject and at the same time short to kindle the interest. I continued with some jokes and finished. The chair person commented that the lecture was "good and original;but the problem was what was original was'nt good and what was good was'nt original.The laughter from the audience struck me hard!

Talking to non psychiatrists is difficult.in one lecture I had to explain freud's theory of id,ego&superego. I SAID ID(PLEASURE PRINCIPLE) is like the vegitative brain;superego like the prefrontal and ego is the reality princiole.to give an example-this lecture is bad,let me get out says Id;superego the moral principle restricts to stay on prnciple.the ego or the reality principle makes a compromise-why antagonise him,sleep with out his knowledge.this can be put into a functioning brain model,which is happening in our day today life. To this we can add hippocampus of the brain which is the cognitive tuner and the amygdala, the emotional centre.

I think we dwelt too much in to psychiatry-we will stop here. next time we can talk about history or anthropology.

The passage of time

The other areas I studied like somatisation disorder(people experience psychological distress and express in body terms),anomy(normlessness) in epilepsy were interesting. Being in the service of Rlys we did study the profile of locomotive drivers, vigilance disturbance among them, stress and post traumatic disorder etc which gave me lot of insight in to these areas of working.working in a general hospital set up gave oppertunity to learn liaison psychiatry

My innings during my service career

In our student days cricket means test matches only:one day or limited over was not known.India in most of the matches was losing and their effort was to draw the match if they were in a better position.the strategy used to be to prolong the match on the last day without getting out. so Natkarni will be sent to bat. he is a bowler but with bat in hand he will tirelessly block and never get out-neither he will score a run. My service carrier is just similar. I never scored anything spectacular but a smooth and peaceful (peace to my subbordinates and sometimes to my bosses also). I should also admit that I did bowl a few good overs. In 70s open heart surgery was started in Rly ospital,Perambur.comlications of neuropsychiatric nature were common-called cardiotomy syndrome. I made a study with the ccardiac surgeon and published-enumerating causes like CPB time lag,ICU prob,poor oxygenater etc. These days surgery being performed on beatng heart, the moderm cardiac surgeon will laugh at those papers.This does'nt happen only to ordinary folks;The smartest of men and greatest personalities in history looked foolish when their considered notions became irrelevent. Thomas Alva Edison said at one point that A.A. current is useless;Atom is indivisible was Einstein's opinion once; Roosevelt thought airplanes will have no chance against fleet of war ships-but in 2nd world war his planes bbrought him victory.!

Welcome

Welcome to 'haribol'- this has nothing to do with the voice of the Lord! But the random thoughts crossed thru the mind of a humble person.

There is no chronological order, set format or specific theme.Some of them may be interesting!

Originally I started the blog as 'haribol' and later as 'andhanalninaivugal'.As I thought there was more of nostalgia and wanted to share current and interesting happenings, also,I changed the web address as

Though qualified in medicine and later psychiatry and practiced (is'nt it ironical -may be unnerving to the patients that doctors call their job "PRACTICE") to my satisfaction for over 30+ years,my main interest has been history and cultural anthropology.Having retired from sevice I 've discontinued medical work and devoting all my time to those areas of my liking.After all history is nothing but millions of biographies put in chronological order; and biographies are about persons of different personalities influenced by the societal culture. This inter connection gives me lot of interest in its pursuit.So, I will touch upon these areas.

There is a saying that words are clothes, the thoughts wear. In this section you will find the clothes ill fitting in some(more) places-bear with me.