Report of 14 Oct 2018
Good evening!
The traffic on Muttukadu bridge is moving, the lights are on and it is night-time. A certain husband is correcting (grading) papers in front of me.
We are well, and are grateful. The Banyan is also fabulous. At our Kovalam Monday clinic, we see many, many patients and I feel grateful to have the help of a community worker there; I had requested this help for some time, as we have no way of convincing the patients to see a specialist or get the lab tests done (these cost money). Many of the patients live at the local dargah (a Muslim place of worship) where they are dependent on charity; some of them do have some money and can get the tests done. One of them came with the results and I was very happy; otherwise, we have to have conversations like "Whom am I ordering these tests for? Whose well-being are we interested in?," and those can get lengthy.
Adaikalam is also nice. The other day, I watched a patient eat her meal. She has developmental delay and does not speak. As she tucked into her tasty breakfast - a wheat dosai (crepe-ish) and chutney (relish) - I was mesmerised: had she been at home, she might have been viewed as a burden and even if she had been fed, it might not have been with love or affection or civility or dignity. At the Banyan, she is a part of our family and the health care workers and nurses and all the staff do a magnificent job of ensuring that she is loved and cared for. A truly fine place, the Banyan.
We went to Madurai over the weekend. Lady Doak College, my alma mater, celebrated 70 years since founding. It was nice; some classmates and I got together the day before the actual alumnae reunion, and that was fun. We could at least hear each other, which we could not at the meet. Lady Doak College is a women's college and was a wonderful place to study in. It was nice to catch up, and get glasses on to see each other's pictures, and talk to former, revered professors. A couple of the professors asked me why I looked so old :) and that is also one of the joys of being at such events, especially in India - the candor. A good time was had by all.
Scott and I also got to talk to my Dad for a bit. That was fun. We had taken some foods that he enjoys - salami and such - so we ate and talked and laughed. A great, long-time, fine friend of my parents, Dr. X, also a surgeon, stopped by and my father insisted on sharing the salami with him; the friend did not like it at all, and his expression was very funny ("Spasm," said my father). Dr. X told my father I now resembled my mother and made several observations - often quietly and as an aside to my father, when I put on my glasses, or said something - to that effect. I suppose I might also get nostalgic, if a beloved friend passed away and an offspring looked just like the friend.
I had a visitor at work this week. The son of a Banyan colleague, formerly impoverished, he has finished a 2-year technical degree and got a job with enough of a salary to help his mother quit her job. She has wanted to, as she is tired of the violence from the patients; she is a nurse and gets hit fairly often. The young man has studied, and done an internship, and is off to work for a good company offering a decent salary. It is pure joy to get such news.
We got to talk to our own joy-bringers this morning. Naren and Navin are well. Naren has a guest role in a show called "The code," I don't know when the episode will air. We do not own a TV, thus have to see it after my mother-in-law records it. Navin is well and enjoying the benefits of employment.
Unw -
R
The traffic on Muttukadu bridge is moving, the lights are on and it is night-time. A certain husband is correcting (grading) papers in front of me.
We are well, and are grateful. The Banyan is also fabulous. At our Kovalam Monday clinic, we see many, many patients and I feel grateful to have the help of a community worker there; I had requested this help for some time, as we have no way of convincing the patients to see a specialist or get the lab tests done (these cost money). Many of the patients live at the local dargah (a Muslim place of worship) where they are dependent on charity; some of them do have some money and can get the tests done. One of them came with the results and I was very happy; otherwise, we have to have conversations like "Whom am I ordering these tests for? Whose well-being are we interested in?," and those can get lengthy.
Adaikalam is also nice. The other day, I watched a patient eat her meal. She has developmental delay and does not speak. As she tucked into her tasty breakfast - a wheat dosai (crepe-ish) and chutney (relish) - I was mesmerised: had she been at home, she might have been viewed as a burden and even if she had been fed, it might not have been with love or affection or civility or dignity. At the Banyan, she is a part of our family and the health care workers and nurses and all the staff do a magnificent job of ensuring that she is loved and cared for. A truly fine place, the Banyan.
We went to Madurai over the weekend. Lady Doak College, my alma mater, celebrated 70 years since founding. It was nice; some classmates and I got together the day before the actual alumnae reunion, and that was fun. We could at least hear each other, which we could not at the meet. Lady Doak College is a women's college and was a wonderful place to study in. It was nice to catch up, and get glasses on to see each other's pictures, and talk to former, revered professors. A couple of the professors asked me why I looked so old :) and that is also one of the joys of being at such events, especially in India - the candor. A good time was had by all.
Scott and I also got to talk to my Dad for a bit. That was fun. We had taken some foods that he enjoys - salami and such - so we ate and talked and laughed. A great, long-time, fine friend of my parents, Dr. X, also a surgeon, stopped by and my father insisted on sharing the salami with him; the friend did not like it at all, and his expression was very funny ("Spasm," said my father). Dr. X told my father I now resembled my mother and made several observations - often quietly and as an aside to my father, when I put on my glasses, or said something - to that effect. I suppose I might also get nostalgic, if a beloved friend passed away and an offspring looked just like the friend.
I had a visitor at work this week. The son of a Banyan colleague, formerly impoverished, he has finished a 2-year technical degree and got a job with enough of a salary to help his mother quit her job. She has wanted to, as she is tired of the violence from the patients; she is a nurse and gets hit fairly often. The young man has studied, and done an internship, and is off to work for a good company offering a decent salary. It is pure joy to get such news.
We got to talk to our own joy-bringers this morning. Naren and Navin are well. Naren has a guest role in a show called "The code," I don't know when the episode will air. We do not own a TV, thus have to see it after my mother-in-law records it. Navin is well and enjoying the benefits of employment.
Unw -
R
posted by Renu at
7:41 AM
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