Report of 31 Jan 2011

Hello from exhaustion-land -

We raced around today trying to meet a deadline; complete anathema to me. Scott and Navin work this way, and I think I must have got an ulcer as we had minutes to spare before the deadline lapsed.

My dear friends, Nina and Mrs. Kurien, have lost their father and husband respectively. Dr. K. J. Kurien had not been well, and passed away yesterday. Our families were closely intertwined, and continue to live on the same street in Madurai, and I felt for the Kurien family in their grief.

I have had family illnesses to treat, and that has been relatively easy. I also had a patient to treat by proxy, as our cook narrated his symptoms and I guessed at the diagnosis. This, obviously, is not the optimal way to treat, but happens more often than you'd imagine.

One day, I drove home after dropping Navin at school and at a signal, a man and his son crossed the road. The son was blind, and the man had a firm grip on his hand. They crossed in front of me, with the man gently telling the boy when to step up and down, and I was mesmerised. I do believe, like all parents, that the man would have cheerfully taken on the son's affliction than let his son suffer with it. But they were making the most of the situation, and there is a good school for the blind fairly closeby, which the young boy will receive a nice education at.

We had some good times over the weekend with our own sons, catching some movies including a well-made Tamil movie that unexpectedly had our Madurai friend, Marcus Cleur, in it. He is Anglo-Indian, a very nice guy, and played an Anglo-Indian in the film. I got a kick out of seeing and recognising him. We also saw "The Green Hornet" and "127 Hours." All of us were impressed with the presence of mind of the protagonist in the latter movie, Aron Ralston, but 2 of us found A. R. Rahman's music just a tad mismatched to the situation - and trust me, *all* of us are Rahman fans. Over lunch on Sunday as we discussed the movies, I enjoyed the time and told the boys that if I died the next day, I would die happy. At least one boy did not appreciate that train of thought.

Unw

R