Renu's Week

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Good evening!

My husband has drunk his cup of tea, an easy adaptation to life in India.  Tea-time at 4-ish PM, when I eat dinner at this hour, an easy adaptation to life in the U.S., continued here.  The laundry is dry, the sea is under a haze and there are plenty of chilluns frolicking at the pool.  Loudly.  At least the pool is being used - hooray.  Earlier last week, there were a couple of women there (rare for our apartment complex) and I was delighted.

The cyclone last month ravaged the green cover here and we can see more of the East Coast Road, running along the Bay of Bengal, than we previously could.  I like the mix of colors from our balcony: the blue sea, green trees, white and yellow and pink buildings.  Plenty of volunteers are mobilising forces to replant trees - hardy species that would withstand cyclones - and we are grateful.

The Banyan is wonderful.  Regretfully, the health care workers have been understaffed and reeling.  Some have been away on leave and leave has been granted in turn.  Poor things: having to deal with a volatile, mentally ill populace and be short-staffed.  But they work uncomplainingly.  Last Monday was the last day of Pongal, our harvest festival, and we did not think there would be many patients at Kovalam, but they came.  One of the patients had sent her teenage daughter with lab results of her diabetes, I had continued the same meds including the insulin, the patient had not continued the insulin and the blood sugar was very high; as she blamed her daughter for not getting the instructions right, I stated that the illness was hers, not her daughter's, and prohibited this proxy sending from then on.  We have challenges galore; they can be surmounted, a little bit at a time.

Private practice is also good.  We had a patient who had attempted suicide and thankfully recovered nicely; she proceeded to tell me in vivid detail her marital woes and I just did not want to hear it as I am not a mental health professional.  Subsequently, her husband came in and fairly well personified the apathetic individual she had claimed he was: with a head full of hair dye (very popular in our society), a blithe dismissal of the current state of affairs with his wife and his mistress, and a proclamation of his near-bankrupt status.  I told him I had nothing to do with the billing, and referred them to the Banyan for counselling.  I am relieved to have this resource (the amazing Banyan) and have sent several patients there.

We saw "The Founder" yesterday and I was saddened at the complete lack of American goodness and fairness shown in Ray Kroc's take-over of McDonald's.  We Skyped with both boys this morning and it was the usual candid, affectionate, fun event it mostly is.

Unw -

R

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