Report of 11 Sept '05
Hello to one and all!
As I am sitting here w/ a good sense of well-being, a msg flashes up on our computer that an internal registry is corrupted. So be it, we'll deal w/ it later. As of now, a lovely Celtic music CD that my friend Carol let me filch from her is playing, and the ethereal voices and music are soothing us. We finished a whopping Western b'fast - ham and eggs - and the boys are at their books. Scott is sitting w/ Naren as he reworks his physics exam. Regardless of where we live, I think we'll always have a Western b'fast instead of heavy Indian breads and chutneys in the am.
We spent a wonderful week in Bangalore w/ Scott and it was nice to be in the same place as my husband for more than 2 days straight. I wanted to seriously evaluate B'lore, Karnataka, as a place to live, esp given Scott's tremendous sacrifice of giving up an iridescent career at Lockheed Martin to accommodate his wife's move to med school, residency and subsequently here to take care of the impoverished. Naren was on his school trip to Delhi and Agra; Navin and I wandered about, living like Bangaloreans do while Scott was at work. S and I subsequently had long talks and we have decided this: Bangalore is gorgeous and has sensational weather, cool and lovely; it is however, very provincial and pretty unwelcoming of non-Karnatakians though there are many multinational corporations there; schools in B'lore are staggeringly expensive and not all provide the excellent education Abacus does, and besides, there is no guarantee that our sons will get in as school admission is always difficult in our overpopulated country where demand far exceeds supply; the boys will have to study Kannada, the local language of Karnataka, and Naren will have to learn enough to take the rigorous board exam next year, whereas in Chennai, the boys have the option of studying Spanish which they have done for 2 years now; B'lore does not appear to handle traffic very well and jams are routine and expected - in fact, Scott's colleagues have joked that if a patient is in an ambulance en route to the hospital, one might as well write him/her off as the ambulance might not make it to the destination. Thus, we will stay put in Chennai and Scott will continue his weekend commute for now.
Well, I had to take a break to run our anti-virus protection; them msgs were starting to sound dire and needed immediate action, etc.
It was fine to have a week off medicine, but I will be ready to return to the Banyan. The boys have another 1.5 weeks off and have been assigned projects by at least one of the teachers. Naren had a spectacular time up North and came home yesterday; he liked Agra, and the army hosted the school kids as VIPs for a ceremony on the Pakistan border. We returned to a good meal from our cook whose sister is pregnant for a 3rd time in the quest for a boy. This does not warm me, as I crusade for small families where parents might have a better chance of affording the kids' care. It does not appear like the sister has maintained regular prenatal care and the cook said she was very tired; I asked if she was on standard prenatal vitamins and the cook said she was not. I wrote out a prescription for vits w/ iron and folate, though the lady should have been on them from very early on, in fact even before conception as far as the folate goes; we can hope for the best here. The cook appears to like having a doctor as an employer - routine medical issues appear to scare the wits out of folks. I never think I have studied something extraordinary - I think anyone could do what I do - but I value my education very highly, feel pretty blessed to have studied in the U.S., and always, always have occasion to marvel at the intricate workings of the human body.
Someone else managed tutoring for me as we were away. Yesterday's paper had a most lovely picture of 4 young girls who used to be vendors on the beach and who are now being sent to school by a private foundation: all the children are laughing in the picture and look very happy. Most children ARE happy here, though desperately poor, but if they could have a vestige of childhood, I'd be grateful. And an education would haul them out of poverty and prejudice. We have miles to go there before we sleep. We were at the beach yesterday, enjoying the breeze, watching N and N play frisbee, soothed by the image of the water and entertained by colorful kites batting their tails at us, and watched a fair number of child vendors there; at this point, a woman came up and offered to tell our fortune. We declined and she said, "I could tell you about overseas events, too," (thinking the white guy and I obviously lived elsewhere) and I said, "Well, we're inseas now," and she laughed. She then said, "Well, you could get news from overseas, you know," and I said, "Yes, I have the best possible kind, here he is," and she left.
"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species." - W. Somerset Maugham
Until next week -
Renu
As I am sitting here w/ a good sense of well-being, a msg flashes up on our computer that an internal registry is corrupted. So be it, we'll deal w/ it later. As of now, a lovely Celtic music CD that my friend Carol let me filch from her is playing, and the ethereal voices and music are soothing us. We finished a whopping Western b'fast - ham and eggs - and the boys are at their books. Scott is sitting w/ Naren as he reworks his physics exam. Regardless of where we live, I think we'll always have a Western b'fast instead of heavy Indian breads and chutneys in the am.
We spent a wonderful week in Bangalore w/ Scott and it was nice to be in the same place as my husband for more than 2 days straight. I wanted to seriously evaluate B'lore, Karnataka, as a place to live, esp given Scott's tremendous sacrifice of giving up an iridescent career at Lockheed Martin to accommodate his wife's move to med school, residency and subsequently here to take care of the impoverished. Naren was on his school trip to Delhi and Agra; Navin and I wandered about, living like Bangaloreans do while Scott was at work. S and I subsequently had long talks and we have decided this: Bangalore is gorgeous and has sensational weather, cool and lovely; it is however, very provincial and pretty unwelcoming of non-Karnatakians though there are many multinational corporations there; schools in B'lore are staggeringly expensive and not all provide the excellent education Abacus does, and besides, there is no guarantee that our sons will get in as school admission is always difficult in our overpopulated country where demand far exceeds supply; the boys will have to study Kannada, the local language of Karnataka, and Naren will have to learn enough to take the rigorous board exam next year, whereas in Chennai, the boys have the option of studying Spanish which they have done for 2 years now; B'lore does not appear to handle traffic very well and jams are routine and expected - in fact, Scott's colleagues have joked that if a patient is in an ambulance en route to the hospital, one might as well write him/her off as the ambulance might not make it to the destination. Thus, we will stay put in Chennai and Scott will continue his weekend commute for now.
Well, I had to take a break to run our anti-virus protection; them msgs were starting to sound dire and needed immediate action, etc.
It was fine to have a week off medicine, but I will be ready to return to the Banyan. The boys have another 1.5 weeks off and have been assigned projects by at least one of the teachers. Naren had a spectacular time up North and came home yesterday; he liked Agra, and the army hosted the school kids as VIPs for a ceremony on the Pakistan border. We returned to a good meal from our cook whose sister is pregnant for a 3rd time in the quest for a boy. This does not warm me, as I crusade for small families where parents might have a better chance of affording the kids' care. It does not appear like the sister has maintained regular prenatal care and the cook said she was very tired; I asked if she was on standard prenatal vitamins and the cook said she was not. I wrote out a prescription for vits w/ iron and folate, though the lady should have been on them from very early on, in fact even before conception as far as the folate goes; we can hope for the best here. The cook appears to like having a doctor as an employer - routine medical issues appear to scare the wits out of folks. I never think I have studied something extraordinary - I think anyone could do what I do - but I value my education very highly, feel pretty blessed to have studied in the U.S., and always, always have occasion to marvel at the intricate workings of the human body.
Someone else managed tutoring for me as we were away. Yesterday's paper had a most lovely picture of 4 young girls who used to be vendors on the beach and who are now being sent to school by a private foundation: all the children are laughing in the picture and look very happy. Most children ARE happy here, though desperately poor, but if they could have a vestige of childhood, I'd be grateful. And an education would haul them out of poverty and prejudice. We have miles to go there before we sleep. We were at the beach yesterday, enjoying the breeze, watching N and N play frisbee, soothed by the image of the water and entertained by colorful kites batting their tails at us, and watched a fair number of child vendors there; at this point, a woman came up and offered to tell our fortune. We declined and she said, "I could tell you about overseas events, too," (thinking the white guy and I obviously lived elsewhere) and I said, "Well, we're inseas now," and she laughed. She then said, "Well, you could get news from overseas, you know," and I said, "Yes, I have the best possible kind, here he is," and she left.
"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species." - W. Somerset Maugham
Until next week -
Renu
posted by Renu Weiss at
8:34 PM
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