Report of 21 Jan '07
Hello from the B -
Oh, go Colts! I so miss watching sports. Scott would tell me intricacies of the game (football, baseball, basketball) I might otherwise miss, and I'd enjoy every bit of it. We got invited to Superbowl parties and never went, because I wanted to watch all of the game and not chit-chat. It was that way w/ all the sports, esp basketball.
It was a wonderful weekend. I went to Coorg for my cousin Pravin's wedding. His mother, Gangai, was widowed when she was expecting him; not only did she single-handedly raise the boy to be a fine young man, she made it a point to attend all our weddings. And stayed genial through all her interactions w/ everyone, even though widowhood in India is particularly humiliating (cannot play the main role at family functions as the widow is considered unlucky, need a man around to get things done by service people, etc.). Ergo, the crowd at the wedding was thunderous. I stayed w/ my cousin, Sheila. Her father, Bollu, and my mother are sibs and have not spoken in 50 years due to opposition over her marriage; he doesn't speak to any of her kids, either. Well, I had breakfast at my uncle Bollu's place. It was epoch-making that he would tolerate my presence there. In fact, we had a most genial conversation, he was hospitable (but not gushy) and I return full of good memories. I got to hang out w/ plenty of other cousins, too (our parents don't get along, but we do, which makes me very happy) - and it was massively therapeutic. Sheila said she told her parents, aunts and uncles that the cousins don't get a chance to fight because the parents do such a good job of it. It was a lovely, lovely time and I returned to find that Scott had had a fender bender here, replete w/ yellings between the drivers, but I refuse to let that cloud the historical moment.
Last week, I got the devastating news that the patient we'd rescued from the street (whom I'd mentioned in the blog) died. She developed respiratory distress, then her BP dropped and she could not be resuscitated. I am kicking myself a bit here: as is customary, I waited for her to get cleaned up before I examined her; I thought her whispering was due to her mental illness (she could have been having breathing difficulty then); I missed some clues to her condition. Dang it. I think she might have had HIV, and a serious resp illness that might have gone along w/ it.
Sometimes I wonder what I do here. Whether I too am starting to treat the impoverished patients as unimportant. I tell you, I was so looking forward to the lady recovering and telling me more about how she'd become as literate as she was: we get nice surprises in our work daily. And, obviously, some not-so-nice ones, also.
Tutoring was looked after by someone else as the boys and we had a long awaited family night at the movies. Actually, I was supposed to zip to Mumbai for the day to attend a press conf and zip back, and I would have missed the movie, so I was trying to figure out how to juggle everything. As it turned out, the flight was too expensive and the B could not afford it; Allah be praised. I love hanging out w/ the 3 Weiss men and we saw "Happy Feet," which was hilarious and excellent, and went to eat at a very expensive burger joint (85 bucks for my tuna salad sandwich). I invest a bit of money and a lot of time in our family events, and like the returns; all of us had a blast.
Hope you are having fun times of your own.
Unw -
Renu
Oh, go Colts! I so miss watching sports. Scott would tell me intricacies of the game (football, baseball, basketball) I might otherwise miss, and I'd enjoy every bit of it. We got invited to Superbowl parties and never went, because I wanted to watch all of the game and not chit-chat. It was that way w/ all the sports, esp basketball.
It was a wonderful weekend. I went to Coorg for my cousin Pravin's wedding. His mother, Gangai, was widowed when she was expecting him; not only did she single-handedly raise the boy to be a fine young man, she made it a point to attend all our weddings. And stayed genial through all her interactions w/ everyone, even though widowhood in India is particularly humiliating (cannot play the main role at family functions as the widow is considered unlucky, need a man around to get things done by service people, etc.). Ergo, the crowd at the wedding was thunderous. I stayed w/ my cousin, Sheila. Her father, Bollu, and my mother are sibs and have not spoken in 50 years due to opposition over her marriage; he doesn't speak to any of her kids, either. Well, I had breakfast at my uncle Bollu's place. It was epoch-making that he would tolerate my presence there. In fact, we had a most genial conversation, he was hospitable (but not gushy) and I return full of good memories. I got to hang out w/ plenty of other cousins, too (our parents don't get along, but we do, which makes me very happy) - and it was massively therapeutic. Sheila said she told her parents, aunts and uncles that the cousins don't get a chance to fight because the parents do such a good job of it. It was a lovely, lovely time and I returned to find that Scott had had a fender bender here, replete w/ yellings between the drivers, but I refuse to let that cloud the historical moment.
Last week, I got the devastating news that the patient we'd rescued from the street (whom I'd mentioned in the blog) died. She developed respiratory distress, then her BP dropped and she could not be resuscitated. I am kicking myself a bit here: as is customary, I waited for her to get cleaned up before I examined her; I thought her whispering was due to her mental illness (she could have been having breathing difficulty then); I missed some clues to her condition. Dang it. I think she might have had HIV, and a serious resp illness that might have gone along w/ it.
Sometimes I wonder what I do here. Whether I too am starting to treat the impoverished patients as unimportant. I tell you, I was so looking forward to the lady recovering and telling me more about how she'd become as literate as she was: we get nice surprises in our work daily. And, obviously, some not-so-nice ones, also.
Tutoring was looked after by someone else as the boys and we had a long awaited family night at the movies. Actually, I was supposed to zip to Mumbai for the day to attend a press conf and zip back, and I would have missed the movie, so I was trying to figure out how to juggle everything. As it turned out, the flight was too expensive and the B could not afford it; Allah be praised. I love hanging out w/ the 3 Weiss men and we saw "Happy Feet," which was hilarious and excellent, and went to eat at a very expensive burger joint (85 bucks for my tuna salad sandwich). I invest a bit of money and a lot of time in our family events, and like the returns; all of us had a blast.
Hope you are having fun times of your own.
Unw -
Renu
posted by Renu Weiss at
12:19 AM
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