Report of 17 June '07
Hello from the land of high technology!
It is a joy to have the keyboard not stick (our V's and B's usually don't make it w/o relentless hammering) and not have the power collapse mid-msg.
So all the grand plans of blogging before I left India were for nought, as it was unusually busy before I left on the night of Sunday, 10 June. Susan, my sister-in-law, came up on 9 June and we went to investigate a catering institute for her son, Sudhir, who has flunked 12th and cannot get into college. The institute was nice, staff were extremely welcoming, and when I told the principal that Sudhir had some discipline issues, he was wonderfully understanding. The choice of institute was seconded by an acquaintance w/ years of experience in the catering field; she now runs a bakery where underprivileged boys train to be bakers and is doing magnificent work. This bakery, so well-named "Winners," used to be a favorite in our family for their scrumptuous chocolate tarts long before we knew about the underprivileged link, and it is about to become more so, consequently. So we think Sudhir will come to Chennai to study catering, and we think this is a good move. My mother is very upset that we seem to be pushing Sudhir into the field, and she and I had a talk where she stated that catering was beneath Sudhir's dignity and capabilities, and I said he should have thought of that before he grandly flunked. I have little patience w/ those who have scads of potential and take academics lightly.
There were patients galore before I left, and I managed to visit the Banyan for rounds also. One of the patients is there w/ a fever, and apparently cannot walk now. As I panicked, and went over the reasons why she likely could not walk after a fever (meningitis? stroke due to an infection? brain parasite?), I noticed that she had not wanted to walk, wilfully, even before the illness - for a little attention-getting. Phew - quel relief. So I wrote an order for the psychiatrist to see her, and the psychologists to do a little behavior therapy, and left. I was lucky enough to see Vaishnavi and Vandana, the B's able founders, before I took off. Vaishnavi has wished for Mrs. Fields' chocolate chip cookies from here, and Vandana was taking care of Mrs. Vellodi in the hospital; Mr. Vellodi is an original trustee of the B, and has been invaluable in his guidance of the Banyan. Mrs. Vellodi had had an abscess drained in her throat, and was going through physical therapy w/ much protest; both Vandana and I had to egg her on. Vandana wished me well on my travels, and asked that I hurry back, and there was no clearer expression of her warmth; there is nothing I would not do for those 2 ladies.
A spot of good news is that our maid's son, coached by Sudhir, passed the entrance test to sixth grade. We celebrated wildly. Another bit of good news is that all the kids in our Friday tutoring group passed, and more have asked to join; but of course they can. Naren and Navin are truly helping these kids succeed, and self-esteem is inching its way up. Naren has started bringing his new school friends to help, which we desperately needed.
I left India on Sunday night, and got to Indy on Monday evening. Colleen Taber was at Indy airport to pick me up, and effortlessly gave a lift to a fellow passenger, Jerry, who had come from India on assignment to the U.S. His colleagues who had come earlier were to have picked him up, and they blithely told him to take a cab, leaving him to think about throwing his precious dollars on a ride. So Colleen dropped him at the colleagues' apartment, and did it w/ such ease that Jerry did not feel he was an inconvenience at all. It was nice to get to the Tabers' and see Mark, Melinda and Christopher; this truly is a warm home away from home and has helped me to get over homesickness quickly.
Work began on Tuesday w/ lots of patients and that was great - kept me busy, and I didn't feel jet lag. As I told Scott, jet lag got really annoying when I had to try and stay awake to watch our beloved San Antonio Spurs win their 4th NBA title. I'm hoping someone taped the last game, because jet lag spirited me away very quickly to another world. We are, however, thrilled to bits w/ the victory.
As I told my sister, in the U.S., as in India, the poor are not used to being treated well medically. This has got to change. I am enjoying work, and quite a few of the male patients are putting the flirts on - quite amusing. I need to get a wedding ring on quickly, as the chain used to signify marital status in India, the thali, is meaningless here.
Scott and boys send lovely notes, Scott daily and the boys when they can spare some of their precious once-weekly Internet time on their mother. Can't blame 'em - they get msgs from around the world, some from female peers, and you tell me which they are likely to reply first - those msgs or their mother's. :) My sister Anu's son, Vikram, is also in college in Chennai, studying zoology, and our sons are happy that most of their male cousins are now in their town. Scott is holding up ably w/ the demands of being in Chennai, work-wise and home-wise, and appears to not be frazzled so far. Truly, the worth of a supportive spouse cannot be measured in money.
Ok, let me wind up. I saw "Knocked up" and "Paris, je t'aime" this weekend. Colleen and Melinda were nice enough to go shopping w/ me, and I satisfied most of the requests on my list; better now than later. I abhor shopping, as most know, and the company made it that much more bearable. I tried to get a phone card to wish Scott a happy Father's Day, and could not get a clear connection - rats. The $10 International Phone cards are not available here: they used to allow 40 minutes of talk time and the connection was clear. I bought a $5 card which professed an international connection, and it allowed me *5* minutes of static. When I tried to return it, it seemed that over half the time was used up. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Hope all the fathers on this list had a Happy Father's Day! I was privileged to grow up w/ a fine father, and am even more delighted that my sons have one of the best also.
Unw -
R
It is a joy to have the keyboard not stick (our V's and B's usually don't make it w/o relentless hammering) and not have the power collapse mid-msg.
So all the grand plans of blogging before I left India were for nought, as it was unusually busy before I left on the night of Sunday, 10 June. Susan, my sister-in-law, came up on 9 June and we went to investigate a catering institute for her son, Sudhir, who has flunked 12th and cannot get into college. The institute was nice, staff were extremely welcoming, and when I told the principal that Sudhir had some discipline issues, he was wonderfully understanding. The choice of institute was seconded by an acquaintance w/ years of experience in the catering field; she now runs a bakery where underprivileged boys train to be bakers and is doing magnificent work. This bakery, so well-named "Winners," used to be a favorite in our family for their scrumptuous chocolate tarts long before we knew about the underprivileged link, and it is about to become more so, consequently. So we think Sudhir will come to Chennai to study catering, and we think this is a good move. My mother is very upset that we seem to be pushing Sudhir into the field, and she and I had a talk where she stated that catering was beneath Sudhir's dignity and capabilities, and I said he should have thought of that before he grandly flunked. I have little patience w/ those who have scads of potential and take academics lightly.
There were patients galore before I left, and I managed to visit the Banyan for rounds also. One of the patients is there w/ a fever, and apparently cannot walk now. As I panicked, and went over the reasons why she likely could not walk after a fever (meningitis? stroke due to an infection? brain parasite?), I noticed that she had not wanted to walk, wilfully, even before the illness - for a little attention-getting. Phew - quel relief. So I wrote an order for the psychiatrist to see her, and the psychologists to do a little behavior therapy, and left. I was lucky enough to see Vaishnavi and Vandana, the B's able founders, before I took off. Vaishnavi has wished for Mrs. Fields' chocolate chip cookies from here, and Vandana was taking care of Mrs. Vellodi in the hospital; Mr. Vellodi is an original trustee of the B, and has been invaluable in his guidance of the Banyan. Mrs. Vellodi had had an abscess drained in her throat, and was going through physical therapy w/ much protest; both Vandana and I had to egg her on. Vandana wished me well on my travels, and asked that I hurry back, and there was no clearer expression of her warmth; there is nothing I would not do for those 2 ladies.
A spot of good news is that our maid's son, coached by Sudhir, passed the entrance test to sixth grade. We celebrated wildly. Another bit of good news is that all the kids in our Friday tutoring group passed, and more have asked to join; but of course they can. Naren and Navin are truly helping these kids succeed, and self-esteem is inching its way up. Naren has started bringing his new school friends to help, which we desperately needed.
I left India on Sunday night, and got to Indy on Monday evening. Colleen Taber was at Indy airport to pick me up, and effortlessly gave a lift to a fellow passenger, Jerry, who had come from India on assignment to the U.S. His colleagues who had come earlier were to have picked him up, and they blithely told him to take a cab, leaving him to think about throwing his precious dollars on a ride. So Colleen dropped him at the colleagues' apartment, and did it w/ such ease that Jerry did not feel he was an inconvenience at all. It was nice to get to the Tabers' and see Mark, Melinda and Christopher; this truly is a warm home away from home and has helped me to get over homesickness quickly.
Work began on Tuesday w/ lots of patients and that was great - kept me busy, and I didn't feel jet lag. As I told Scott, jet lag got really annoying when I had to try and stay awake to watch our beloved San Antonio Spurs win their 4th NBA title. I'm hoping someone taped the last game, because jet lag spirited me away very quickly to another world. We are, however, thrilled to bits w/ the victory.
As I told my sister, in the U.S., as in India, the poor are not used to being treated well medically. This has got to change. I am enjoying work, and quite a few of the male patients are putting the flirts on - quite amusing. I need to get a wedding ring on quickly, as the chain used to signify marital status in India, the thali, is meaningless here.
Scott and boys send lovely notes, Scott daily and the boys when they can spare some of their precious once-weekly Internet time on their mother. Can't blame 'em - they get msgs from around the world, some from female peers, and you tell me which they are likely to reply first - those msgs or their mother's. :) My sister Anu's son, Vikram, is also in college in Chennai, studying zoology, and our sons are happy that most of their male cousins are now in their town. Scott is holding up ably w/ the demands of being in Chennai, work-wise and home-wise, and appears to not be frazzled so far. Truly, the worth of a supportive spouse cannot be measured in money.
Ok, let me wind up. I saw "Knocked up" and "Paris, je t'aime" this weekend. Colleen and Melinda were nice enough to go shopping w/ me, and I satisfied most of the requests on my list; better now than later. I abhor shopping, as most know, and the company made it that much more bearable. I tried to get a phone card to wish Scott a happy Father's Day, and could not get a clear connection - rats. The $10 International Phone cards are not available here: they used to allow 40 minutes of talk time and the connection was clear. I bought a $5 card which professed an international connection, and it allowed me *5* minutes of static. When I tried to return it, it seemed that over half the time was used up. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Hope all the fathers on this list had a Happy Father's Day! I was privileged to grow up w/ a fine father, and am even more delighted that my sons have one of the best also.
Unw -
R
posted by Renu Weiss at
1:13 PM
1 Comments:
Vaishnavi has excellent taste in chocolate chip cookies!
Thanks to Renu for giving me two wonderful reasons to celebrate Father's Day!!
And thanks also to those reasons (Naren and Navin) for making me happy to be their father!!!
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Anonymous, at 18/6/07 7:33 AM
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