Report of 31 March 2019

And another month is ending.

The day is sunny and bright.  I have just eaten a tub of watermelon.  Summer is on us and the mangoes are here, already, to my greed's great delight.  We bought some exorbitantly-priced ones yesterday and have eaten one.  Imam Pasand.  There are many varieties of mangoes - similar to bananas - and Imam Pasand is quite a royalty.

We are well.  Many dental issues.  The perils of eating massive amounts of sweets in younger days.  Scott is lucky that he had fluoride treatment as a child, thus he is relatively protected, knock on wood.

The Banyan is great.  Vandana was at Mogappair this week and it was good to see her.  She said Hi to me and a more exuberant Hi to Scott, causing me to burst out laughing.  They are very fond of each other, as were my mother and Scott.  Good.  Better that the Hi's are more exuberant for Scott than for me :).  Vandana is on several national panels to address mental health issues and I feel privileged to work for this visionary, fun, intelligent and funny person.  Vaishnavi, the other founder of the B, is off addressing disability-related issues, also on a national level, and it is a privilege to know her, as well - visionary, fun, intelligent and funny. 

I went to Mysore on Friday to take my aunts out to eat for their 85th and 80th birthdays.  My aunt, Indira, could not come to Mysore from Coorg as she was unwell, so my aunt, Chitra, and I celebrated her 85th birthday a bit early.  It was fun.  Reminiscences of my mother brought lots of laughter and good humor.  CA (Chitra Aunty) cooked me a fine breakfast and lunch, and I enjoyed both.  In the interval between the 2 meals, I visited my cousin, Nandu, and family.  It was great to see them, too, and there was much laughter at stories of our sons and other relatives.  Truly, family is a blessing.  As is being in touch with them.  I help take care of several hundred women who do not have this luxury. 

We hung out with the boys this morning and that was a treat.  Much candor, which I will unfailingly be grateful for. 

Have a very good week!

Unw -

R

Report of 24 March 2019

Good evening!

Crystal clear day.  The sea is blue. there are boats in the backwaters at Muttukadu.  There is a cricket game downstairs.  Chennai Super Kings defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore yesterday in a T20 format cricket match here in Chennai; that would have been cool to see - I love live sports - but we were doing other things.

We are well.  It was a week spent in Chennai, but you would not have known it.  I had a tooth emergency and had to run to the dentist.  My home health business had a patient.  I battled a virus and that got annoying.  There was a nice artsy Tamil movie that I wanted to see and it has been whisked off; artsy does not last, action does.  That said, I am waiting for a movie called "Super Deluxe" to come out; it is directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja, who directed the magnificent "Aaranya Kaandam," which won multiple awards.  It was a quirky, fun, Coen brothers/Tarantino-ish flick. 

The Banyan is fabulous.  Almost all my favorite patients were at Kovalam last week and I nearly took a photo.  One of them said she did not want the iron syrup as it was making her hungry.  She has the average undernourished look that some Indians have and I love the increased appetite - especially as her family has the food resources for it - but she does not.  Our able assistant and I chuckled as the lady gestured at how hungry she was - "I eat everything gabba gabba" - using both her hands for effect.  At the end of clinic, the nurse came in complaining of feeling feverish.  A check of her blood pressure revealed a slightly low number and I ordered IV fluids.  Truly, fluids can often make a difference. 

Adaikalam is also groovy.  One of our more talkative patients has discovered an activity that keeps her engaged and we are grateful: her non-stop chatter - literally, non-stop - would otherwise start in the morning and go on and on, preventing any meaningful work on anyone else's part.  She now has an activity sorting dhal (lentils) into paper cups and is engaged - hooray.  Our therapists are good sorts.  Another patient - actually, a college-mate of one of my aunts and a former college professor (to our nurse's amazement) - was visited by a few of her friends; they brought her clothes and sweets and she is happy.  Actually, she is probably the happiest of all her friends; I know for a fact that some of them have side issues that vex them.   

Scott's beloved aunt Anita died yesterday.  She had cancer, and it was an expected outcome, but we were saddened nonetheless.  She and her late husband, Norb, had a farm which hosted me many a time.  They were hospitable, fun and loving folks.  It would have been great to see her one last time; we did see her last May when we took her out for dinner for her 80th birthday.  Those were some fine memories.  She was in the care of Hospice; I hear it was a peaceful and pain-free demise, which is good.

We were at a craft show yesterday and bought jewellery from 2 ladies whom we have patronised before.  Scott has a phenomenon known as "kai rasi" - literally "hand luck" - which means that he draws paying customers to a vendor that he buys from.  These ladies affirmed it yesterday - they'd had good sales after Scott paid them last time for our purchase - and requested that we stop by their booth every time we see them.  Their wares are quite fine, so we stop. 

We hung out with the boys this morning and that was a fun fest.  They mentioned being grateful to have seen their grand aunt, Anita, at Christmas; she had a trans-generational appeal.  After her husband died, she sold us her car, which Navin now drives.  Lots of little links to a fine lady.

Hope you have a great week!

Unw -

R    

Report of 18 March 2019

Hello!

Boy, is the sea blue, and clear.  As is the sky, with more than 1 shade of blue. 

We are well and hope the same with you.  We were in Kuwait last week to attend the wedding of the daughter of Scott's childhood friend, Susan, and her husband, Ghassan.  That was a blast.  Palestinian weddings are unbridled joy, and we certainly did not notice the lateness of the hour.  The couple was escorted in with music and dancing at 9 PM, all continued to dance until 11 PM and dinner was served at 11 PM.  Then more dancing; Scott and I left at 1 AM and the party was far from over.  The day after, the hosts invited several of us to dinner and then over to their house; it was nice to talk and share.  A very fun 3 days.

We saw the Kuwait tower, the souk (marketplace) Mubarakiya and the Grand Mosque.  It was all fun, and the food was excellent. 

I was back at clinic today, and it was the same busy-ness.  The gentleman who lost his wife did not come for follow-up last week, and I was concerned.  I know he is grieving.  So, I requested help from colleagues, one of them lives near his house, and lo and behold, in he walked.  He is better and going around, visiting friends, one of whom was also at the clinic.  He said something very poignant last time: when his wife used to tell him to sit in a spot, he viewed it as affection; when his daughter-in-law says the same thing now, it sounds coarser, as an edict.  All of us are - as a community - ensuring that the gentleman is okay.  I do believe we would do the same if the bereaved were a lady.  A colleague lost her father and many of us were checking on her mother. 

Our flight back from Kuwait was great.  IndiGo is a domestic Indian airline, now flying overseas.  The pilot was a lady, and she got us in early.  There was a mild medical emergency on the flight, with a lady unable to tolerate the ear pressure.  She was in traditional Muslim clothes and the very well-dressed and coiffed crew treated her with kindness and expertise, giving her water to swallow.  She felt better and I gave her a lozenge, that saliva might continue to be generated and swallowed so that the pressure on the ears would equalize. 

I spoke to my father yesterday.  He is well, thank goodness.  We will go visit in a couple of weeks.  We also chatted with the boys and that was grand fun.  Naren turned 28 last week, we wished him from Kuwait and then got the scoop yesterday on how he had celebrated.  Navin had given him a gift - the right size and color - and that was cool to hear.  Acquaintances with small children talk of how much the children fight; ours did, too, and appear to have become the closer for it, or in spite of it.     

Have a great week!

Unw -

R

Report of 12 March 2019

Good morning!

Summer is on us.  Last week was particularly hot and it can get this way in March.  In Madurai, my hometown, the temperature last week was apparently 41 deg Celsius, 105.8 deg Fahrenheit.  My father does not like using airconditioning and the fans in the living quarters were likely in full use.

We are well.  Family Day happened at the Banyan the last 2 Sundays, thus my blogging time was appropriated.  They were fun days.  Friends donate magnanimously to make this happen, and the full sense of their generosity and regard for us adds to the happiness of the day.  Families of staff come on a Sunday, we have games and mehendi (henna for the hands), popcorn and cotton candy; for lunch, biryani, and for tea, cake donated by Adyar bakery.  All unusual fare for many of us, and we wallop.  Then we dance.  There is a stage and performers from among the staff stage a "variety entertainment."  It is fun to see otherwise very professional colleagues shake a leg in perfect rhythm to some Tamil song, or sing a song of their choice. 

The Banyan is good.  Clinic was fine.  A long-time patient came by last Monday; his wife, also a patient, has died and we were thunderstruck when told.  Being an outpatient facility, we are not the first hospital the community accesses when a patient is ill outside clinic hours; we are also a free facility, and that brings with it its own set of perceptions - "free" = "not always good" or "limited."  The lady had been appropriately taken to a hospital and I am not clear yet about the cause of death.  She had apparently mentioned to the treating doctor that she was on a diabetic med, and she was not diabetic; the man stated that we were the only facility to have treated her and that she got the med from us.  Certainly, ingesting wrong medication can go so far as to be fatal; we investigated, turning our clinic notes and the pharmacy register upside down, and found that we had absolutely not prescribed or given the med.  The man talked to our senior coordinator and assured her he was not blaming us; that was fine, we still needed to do a review of our procedures and remind ourselves to be 10,000 times careful. 

I can tell you, it was a tremendous relief to look over the late patient's notebook (our patient record, which I write in, and which remains with the patient) and find that I had not prescribed the diabetic med.  Any of us can make mistakes.

We were in Madurai about 10 days ago and my father, on the Governing board of my alma mater, Lady Doak College, was very busy with meetings there.  We saw him for about 3 hours that weekend and had a merry time talking.  He continues to be busy, which is good.  I discussed my work situation with him and he had excellent advice.  My sister and brother-in-law were in Chennai en route Australia, and my brother's family, Scott and I met them for tea, on our return from Madurai.  That was fun - lots of laughter and eating and chatter, my definition of a good time. 

My private practice is on hiatus a bit due to my upcoming travels.  It was wonderful to see patients and get good histories from them.  Medicine in India remains joyous for now.   

I have painted fingernails on 1 hand.  At Kovalam's Family Day, a colleague's daughter worked a "nail art" stall and I got my fingernails painted.  Not having daughters (but loving my sons no less), I revel in female attention of this kind.  The young ladies are growing up fearless - their father has abandoned them and no one is poorer for it - and both Scott and I are happy to see this. 

Last weekend, we went to a craft show, a photo exhibit and then saw 2 Tamil movies called "Thadam" and "To Let."  They were good.  We ate at our favorite Writers' Cafe, where women with burn injuries work and get marvellously rehabilitiated, and were fortunate to get a chat with the managerial staff, all of whom are altruistic and magnificent folks.  It was a very fun meal. 

We got to talk to the boys both weekends and they are well.  Opinions were freely expressed and I am grateful. 

Unw -

R