Doctor : A shadow of resilience and comfort

If nature had to explain me the meaning of the phrase 'long overdue', it chose to explain it in a brutal way. Yes, I do stand accused of procrastinating, and taking few actions in personal life granted, but time waits for none. So, when I learnt the news of one of my favourite person leaving this earth for heaven, I realised that I missed conveying to her how much she was my favourite. 

Being brought up in a close knit habitat brings its own share of perks and punishments. And one of the perks for me during my childhood, was a system to tend to me and cured me quick, every time I was ill. I was insulated from the scenes of deluge of patients (some on wheelchair, some with saline drips) in the Outpatient Department Wards of some of the government run hospitals. And that was primarily due to the healthcare clinic in my colony. There we few doctors tending to patient on their shift timings. But my favourite was one I used to addressed as 'Lady Doctor Aunty'. 

Calm face, yet confident, Lady Doctor aunty exhibited a sense of resilience and comfort. She was quick to call out the bad habits (she used to warn me on my slouch posture and always advised me to have a straight posture). From prescribing medicines, to signing off my medical application forms (to be submitted to school), her actions not only improved my physical well being but also gave me mental peace (remember the feeling when ill, and remember the feeling when cured of illness? the transition in mental phase is awesome once you are cured). 

Known as being affectionate to children in the colony, Lady Doctor Aunty used to amaze me with her ability to time-and-again guess the patient illness the moment she/walked into the room. An epitome of multi-tasking, she made sure to keep patients at ease while conducting the diagnosis (may it be using stethoscope, blood-pressure monitoring instrument, cleaning wounds or administering injection at times). Like me, there were others in the colony whose patient books (we were provided a notebook by the clinic where the doctors used to write the diagnosis and dates) were inscribed by the prescriptions by Lady Doctor aunty. 

On a lighter note , I was often amazed by the color of frame on one of her glasses, and the color of her pen as they were matching. I also drove recourse in the fact that her handwritings were difficult to read for me. So whenever I was asked by my mother to improve on my handwriting I used to reply saying "but even doctor aunty's handwriting is like mine", to which she used to say "she is doctor, and you are student who hasn't even graduated from primary school". Later I realised that Lady Doctor Aunty must have put in the hard work and utilised her ability to serve patients to such an extent that hardly anyone was bothered about the handwritings. 

Today when I go to hospitals, I am reminded of my colony days when hospital used to be small and less scary. As the wait time at doctors get longer (with cities swelling in population), finding a moment where one can access a very good doctor with a wait time in half-an-hour is a thing of past. But I am proud to remind myself of the golden old days when I was able to access very good doctors in colony quick. 

Yes, the 'long overdue' comes today when I am finally able to put down my thank you to her in words. It is ironical that roughly a week or more back I was listening to back to back campaigns on radio to send an ode about woman/women who impacted individual life on eve of  Women's Day. I kept on ignoring the campaign, unaware that after 10 days I would be penning down a tribute to a soul who continues to still impact me till day.

Lady Doctor Aunty might have left us; but the memories associated with her (somewhere in some house that patient notebook would be there with her diagnosis and prescriptions) remain with us as fresh as yesterday. 

This nature shall not come back

I don’t know which is scary?
Whether the fact that the mortality rate is 1% or whether i might be in those 1%

I don’t know which is insecurity ?
Whether 32 of 198 Bangalore wards are sealed off, or the prospect my ward might be next

I don’t know which is selfishness?
Whether people getting to see each other, or whether my dreams (which am working upon) of perpetual wfh turning true

I don’t know which is apprehension?
Whether me getting scared of people, or them who brave all odds to get stuffs delivered at house all way

I don’t know which is priority?
Whether me jumping on to a flight en route home, or hoping for the air space shutdown to continue and save lives

I don’t know which is cruel?
Me avoiding social appearance, and declining the hands who extend invite always

I know one thing: those who brave this storm will see a new place , new greed and new dream from the next day

The world will change, this is a pause
Enjoy whatever you like from the present cause

Because it will be a leap when people step out
Physically they might be out but they would always recoil and stick in their abode whereabout

Appearance shall cease, voices shall rise
Touches would fade away, only digital connects would be labelled as wise

Humans asked for this, humans deserved this descent
When every day majority of mankind expressed displeasure with the nature and the state of present

This is a lesson underlined by nature
That dissatisfaction always brings a change which drastically alters the future

But mankind is good in lapse memory
All this lessons will only go as a bookmark in future story

Those who realize the nature will change forever
Are cherishing their last moment with the current stage of nature before it changes altogether

But fear grips the realisation of the fact that nature will never remain as is after this
As souls like me opt to worry for their lives rather than spending the last few moments before the present state of nature dismiss

I know one thing: choice is mine
Whether to cherish this last few moments of current nature, regardless of whether am in that 1% mortality line..

Nostalgic nostrills: That gas machine...

Nostrils often used to be a mode of drawing our attention to something familiar. That similar perfume of sweets lady, that delicious smell of chicken kassa cooked at neighboring place or even a shop, that smell in the bus coming from people who toil day in and out for their livelihoods, and that smell of cigarette which you sense when you teacher or boss had just had a puff: nostrils take us back to a moment of acquaintance in past.

So here is a note from me dedicated towards a moment which i hated as well as enjoyed(remember how i did told you that life is a dilemma); a moment which was all set because of nostrils.

Once in every month i used to smell something oily(kerosene like) while returning from plays in evenings. It took me a while to discover that that smell emanated from the reminiscent of the gas sprayer to shew away the mosquitoes.

One of the advantages of settling in a closely knit community(or say colony) is hygiene. From food to air, be rest assured that you are,consuming everything which is hygienic. So does follow all activities in ensuring hygiene. And pest cleaning is one of them.

The fogging machine: Memories associated...

Much to the annoyance of family members, much to the encroachment of privacy of bedroom windows and much to the aggravating due to the humming noise of machine, the mosquito pest control smoke machine( or the fogging machine) used to pay regular visit to every nook and corner of colony. It used to come with a sound of conch: its terribly humming noise. Even when the pest control at neighboring type was on, we used to be aware of it. The machine did not fear anyone: big, small, rich or poor, and diligently performed its duty. An equal credit goes to the operators who not only tolerated the loud humming noise of machine, refilled it at every step, but also never shooed away from foraying into deep area to ensure our safety.

Few days back while taking a stroll in my locality i happened to encounter a familiar smell; the smell of mosquito repellent smoke machine. Needless to say that it immediately drew my attention back to those good old days when i was irritated as well as excited at the prospect of machine visiting our house. Clearly, i do consider the machine as one of the biggest celebrity guest which has ever visited by house. It commanded respect and slogged to protect us. A tribute to the machine....

Turning back the time..

Sipping your favorite coffee and walking down the lanes of childhood days never seems to be a bad idea, especially when you are out of touch with your close pals for a while. A hiatus of two grand years from my school teachers, friends and people of colony gave me an excuse to hang out with my school friends.

Smile Please: Mr. Banker,Miss Fund Manger
and I strike a pose for the camera

The meticulous planning of the trip, whose destination was initially decided to be Kerela, tapered gradually over the time to culminate the location at local places near our old houses. And the number of friends turning out for the trio slowly plummeted from nine to three! If two is a company and three is a chaos, then four five six and on are pandemonium. The turnout was optimal to personify our wishes and requests for the trip. However that did not deter our plans. Me, Mr Banker and Miss Fund Manager kick-started the journey by visiting a popular temple of lord Ganesha in south Orissa. Mr Banker was quick to share his experience of visit Siddhi Vinayak temple in Mumbai. The soaring mercury, which did not do good to us, however was somewhat pacified by the AC in the taxi.

Prop under use: Mr. Banker and Miss Fund
Manager pose for a pic

What started as a normal trip turned to a voyage of fun and madness. Thanks to the super soaring mercury in Sambalpur, which gave Miss Fund Manager a right to exploit(yes, she made us slog with the camera work) us. With her frequent one liners such as “take a snap from that place” and “this heat is nothing as compared to that of Sambalpur”, she made sure to cover each nook and corner of the places we visited. Mr. Banker was a mixed bag as he often posed for photos and clicked photos and bemoaned the excessive frequency of snaps that were taken(at least 3 pics per 3 steps!!!). Three cameras and a never ending auto click mode(which was turned on in Mr. Banker’s mobile) increased the permutation and combinations of pictures. Literally every prop on the way was utilized to be stored in the frames of memories.

The photoshoot prevailed throughout the journey, as we headed next to “almost a college turned sanctuary” and an exotic hotel on sea shore. In a way, the photoshoot allowed us to experience the exotic and decors of the hotel. Not surprisingly did Miss Fund Manager or Mr Banker outdid me in the food department during lunch, as they tasted almost all possible dish available.

Splash Game! : Dirty, saline water of Bay of
 Bengal  under use for  splash game

The fun doubled with a packed sea beach, where we took recourse in splashing dirty saline water on each other. Mr. Banker shied away from this splash fest and took charge behind the lens. Finally, after rejecting Mr. Banker’s plea of dropping him home first, Miss Fund Manager took us to her home where we were welcomed with a good coffee and snacks. The whole experience drained out our energy, did gave a moment to capture which would bring in smile on our faces in future. Yes, everything in this world is a transaction and in this trip we traded our energy for fun and smile. Down the time, such hangouts would act as impetus for us to continue assembling for such more mad trips.

This time that year

Completion of a stint is a great thing. Especially when you mask yourself a man on the mission and come out with a i-finally-survived look. The scary experiences in the black box of stint jolts your perception, changes the alignment of your constellations and approach towards things.

While I come out from one of a stint, mind takes me back years ago during the bachelor in engineering/technology course. Mobile phones were a growing fashion that time. Class was determined by the weight of the phone, rather than its appearance. The torchlight mobile phones and the ever lasting samsung(RIM) phone were the alternatives during those days. Few had the liberty to hunt in for sony-erricson and other mobiles.

What drives my attention back to those days is an introduction of an offer(free talk time for reacharge of 500 INR within the telephone operator network). The teen couples rushed to pounce on such offers and did not bother about the low(extremely low balance offered by the cellular operator). In case you happened to own a number of different cellular network operator, either the onus was on you to call them up/ or you had to take the risk of never listening back from them(if they every call you, it would be a maximum two times ring missed call).

There were others who were not bothered by these offers(inelastic demand) and preferred the full talk time package. They took pride in changing hello tunes, more often than they changed their toothpastes, activated 'missed call alerts' despite not receiving much of calls and were frequent fan of more value added services of cellular operators.

The SMS alert was high during cricket matches, with people texting to those four or five digit numbers to learn about the score updates. That year, I also saw the quality of grammar deteriorate as alphabets were chopped off the words to be accommodated in the text limit of single SMS.

Those days can never be brought back, but I would like to travel with those loners and no-loners on those memory lanes and wonder how they perceive the world today(when mobile technology has leaped a long way ahead)?

Climax days...

Snatch some time...

The final days are one of the most boring and busiest period on universe. On one hand when one is saddled with completing the last formalities and strives to wrap them off in as minimum time as possible, the specified time period when he/she is needed to stay makes the experience a bit boring with a sprinkle of patience.

Smart Dude tries to fit in to a baby
high-chair to prove his fitness

I cajoled Smart dude to head out for a party. The trio headed after our classes to one of the outlets of a brand started by Col. Sanders. On seeing me pushing for payment(and thanks to pre-payment system before ordering food), Gold Lady ordered a delicious dish. The spiciness of the dish made us sip those mint drink which Smart dude ordered. Time had smiled on me, as I dictated the chit chat and Gold Lady supported my points. Naturally Smart dude was the casualty, but he seemed to enjoy those missiles of banter.

We soon headed to watch a bollywood flick, whose name coincided with a location. Sloppy story line, lousy dialogues and loose acting helped ease our mind as a action thriller was converted to a parody. We three joked and enjoyed. It took a while to realize that three protagonists in the movie were actually using the same song (without any alteration in lyrics) during their introduction scenes.

The movie finished with 1 hour in hand for the gates of college to shut down. We fed our hungry stomach and returned campus. That culminated the experience of trio. A chilled out educational hub gifted me experience with two cool folks and I would cherish it forever.

Lessons of life

I happened to develop rapport with an ex-service man. Before leaving the place I payed a visit to his place and enjoyed our chat. He mentioned his experience of serving in various locations during his tenure in a defense organization. One can never say on seeing this person that he has been a part of ambush, been at place with some of the tense security climate and endured much hardships during the course of service. It was interested to live this experience, where interacting with a person opened up a gamut of learning and experience of life. I would cherish the fact that we developed a good rapport and I have one more person who would be here when I visit next time.

I also met up with an entrepreneur, who happened to be my acquaintance. Though younger than me in age, he was older than me in facing the music while realizing a vision. And unlike our assignments, where a mistake can be made up in future actions, this guy did not had any luxury to go for mistakes. I was happy to learn that his initiative was recognized in various global and national business plans competition. The passion which I see in him, gives me the answer to the question "why this guy works harder despite things nothing going the right way? why this guy is so optimistic?" Perhaps that's how one is supposed to approach life, and I would continue to look up to this sort of attitude.

As I leave a crazy, wacky place with a crazy and wacky experience I would always turn back to relive those few good memories I had here.

Vantage points..

Coffee after work

Time: A year and half ago..

It was during the days in first year. The guest lecture had just finished. So did my job of typing the draft and mailing it to my group. I packed the laptop and headed out. The phone buzzed as I was boarding the bus which was bound to campus.

The 'Trio': Back then in first year.
Picture taken by Mr. Young

It was Smart Dude. The idea of snacks struck him.This time the trio was accompanied Mr. Young. We headed to Caffee Coffee Day as it was one of the closer option available and my penchant for Frappe. Despite donning formals, I did not hesitate to head for coffee, as more or less I resembled a sales folk(no offence intended) tired after day's toil.

As we settled down, we ordered ourselves coffees and snacks. Gold Lady and Mr. Young took turns in clicking pictures. Smart Dude had a lengthy telephonic conversation and then joined us as the snacks were served.

Things have moved slow and such memories have always been at back of my mind. As I always believe, such moments can never be replicated, but we can cherish them forever.

Boredom on horizon

Time: Yesterday..

Saari duniya ek taraf hai, ek taraf hai hum..
When you smile for me, world seems alright..

A rejoiced Smart Dude replayed these lines again and again on his music system, as we were returning after some work. While returning a common notion struck me. What makes two, three or multiple persons as friends? Its 'purpose'. Each and every person in the circle shares the same purpose: whether it may be as weird as going for booze or as pious as visit to holy place. The notion struck me as I wondered what made me to tag along with Smart Dude or Gold Lady or Mr.Brave n Strong or others.

Even the rays of sunshine could not
inspire Smart Dude to come out of
boredom. (Image quality regretted).

I did realize that friends not only have a common area of taste, but also
common area of distaste. From making faces on the prospect of certain dishes to dampening the emotions on the prospect of an unwelcome person, the range of common distaste varies.

As I ordered food from, Smart Dude was super busy in his world of boredom. Singing songs in super slow tempo, posing super sad expressions and recurring the lyrics like a stuck cassette player, Smart Dude exhibited all attributes of a bored person to a perfect level. Luckily we finished the food and headed back to campus.

We are tensed

Time: 2 weeks back..

"Sir, what do you do when you are in distress?" I asked a senior volunteer who was travelling with me in train.

"When I am distressed or don't feel comfortable, I say no. But saying no has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. I have had a lot of trade-offs to do in life. But ultimately I was confident of my skills. That gave me confidence" replied the old man.

I suddenly found his words of wisdom to be apt. Somewhere in heart I do believe that our confidence has some co-relationship with the faith we put on our skill sets.

A relaxed Mr. Savior
poses after presentation

The next day I had a presentation to deliver. The day was filled with tension as my presenting partner was drowned in his set of issues and I with mine(I had a subject presentation coinciding the same day). After initial rushing to faculties, we were blessed by their suggestions to incorporate changes.

The next day we had presentation. To our surprise, we were received well and provided with lots of constructive suggestions. The incident taught me one thing: listening to varied people sometimes brings new learning and hones your skills.

We came out relieved and had our pictures clicked. Mr. Savior, who supposedly happened to be my presenting partner was happy for the thing to go smoothly. Realizing that we happened to be in suits,we snapped pictures of selves.

Numerous vantage points as these lie in the memoirs in mind. Sometime when they get flashed, I feel luck recalling such rare moments.