Divine Sticks from Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar is a holy place . It is situated in the Sahyadri range of mountains along western coast of India . Besides natural beauty , temples and serpentine rivulets , this place is also famous for beautifully carved walking-sticks . It is believed that prayers made here always come true . I have a feeling that the sticks from Mahabaleshwar are as effective as prayers . I have a reason to believe so.
During my childhood , we used to stay in railway quarters . We six brothers and two sisters with parents lived in a quarter admeasuring about 600 square feet - courtesy South Eastern Railways . I was the seventh child of my parents . Our home was shabby for more than one reason . There was always more luggage in our home than needed - some useful , many useless , mostly such items which were never to be used but could not be thrown out either . As if the number of children were not enough , we also had two pet dogs . Not surprising then that in spite of all efforts of my overworked mother , the home remained shabby .

My Mejda ( second eldest brother ) had brought two walking sticks from Mahabaleshwar . These were well carved with beautifully decorated handles . The grips of the handles were designed like the head of Chinese dragon . Mejda brought these sticks for two reasons , one - to decorate the walls of our otherwise shabby home and the other that they would prove handy in father’s old age. Well , the second logic did not amuse my father !

My father was always worried about the future of his sons and daughters . “Alas ! I wonder if my children will ever become manush ”, he often said . ‘Manush’ in Bengali means good human being and amanush meant a spoilt child . I , his seventh child , was far from being a manush , in fact I was more of amanush.

There was a mango grove next to our school where I studied . During the school periods , instead of concentrating on what the teacher taught , my thoughts would hover around the branches of the mango trees . In the recess , we all friends would play hide and seek game in the mango grove . I used to rush to these trees and hide among the branches , while my classmates would search for me frantically .

Once I spread itch – powder on the benches and desks in the class room and later when powder showed its effect , all the kids started scratching their body and I had a hearty laugh till I got a good thrashing from the head teacher . In short I was a naughty and lazy student .

I never lost any opportunity to gossip . In fact I loved to listen to other people gossiping , especially the elders , as that seemed to be the only available entertainment for them in our small town. Needless to say most of my time was wasted like this. Once , just a month prior to exams , a family acquaintance visited our home . He started telling stories about some Bengali hit movie he had seen in Calcutta . I was glued to the spot voraciously gulping his make belief .

My Mejda was an army man ,a strict disciplinarian . He disapproved of all this especially wasting time before exams . He was home for his annual leave and was watching all that was going on for sometime , silent but disapproving . When suddenly….

Dham ..dhoom … dham ..dhoom …. crack , the stick broke on my back . It happened even before I realized what hit me. Unable to tolerate my wasting time Mejda had silently brought down one stick and then ……. This had two immediate effects . Firstly , from that day , I stopped wasting my time in gossiping . Secondly , my father was apparently very happy . Sticks no longer reminded him of his old age .

Many years have passed since then . My father is no more . I do not know whether I have fulfilled my father’s dream of my becoming a manush . I often tell my Mejda , “ Brother , your one stick has made me a kidney specialist , you should have broken both the sticks on my back , then possibly , I would have become a manush in the real sense .”

After all , the sticks were no ordinary sticks , these were divine sticks from Mahabaleshwar !

The Miracle water

I was in seventh heaven , naturally so because my patient Ramu had shown remarkable signs of recovery . This 10 years old lad was admitted in the intensive care unit ( ICU ) 3 weeks back in a state of coma. He had high grade fever , seizures , bleeding tendency , jaundice and kidney failure . His father Haridas had brought him with great hopes .
In the first week inspite of our efforts Ramu was deteriorating . Myself and Devyani, my physician colleague were involved in the management of Ramu . As he deteriorated we scanned many books , literature , discussed day and night and went through the internet about the disease and the possible treatment available .
In our ICU , we have a very dedicated staff in-charge , Sister Ammini . She is very strict with the staff nurses , friendly with doctors , sympathetic to the patients and co-operative with the relatives . She is very religious . As I enter the ICU , from her face I can understand the status of my patient . If her face is bright , my patient must be improving ., her dark face indicates that something is grossly wrong with the patient , a bored face indicates that the number of patients in the ICU are less . In short her face is the mirror of ICU . If any patient is critically ill , she is in blue mood.
“ Ai ai yo , I shall pray to Jesus for his recovery “ said sister Ammini .Her face was dark with pain and anguish of the suffering child .
Devyani and me appreciated her feelings .
We have a very dependable friend Jay , I call him as a “ mobile medical dictionary” . He is very intelligent and always helpful . I took his help in patients management . But inspite of all our struggles , patient was not doing well .
We had exhausted almost all available medications of our armamentarium . We were feeling helpless against the hopeless situation . The child had started bleeding in his stomach . Lot many blood transfusions and blood products were transfused .
I felt as if the earth below my feet is giving way . I was depressed . My enthusiasm had disappeared . I was greatly disturbed with the chain of events .It was difficult for me to face child’s father , who was always calm and serene . He had great faith on us , that made me feel more helpless .

God has his own ways to make us feel His existence .As we were fighting against all hopes , the child gradually started improving . His breathing improved . His urination picked up . Jaundice started fading . One fine morning he opened his eyes . A wave of joy spread in our ICU .
“ Ai ai yo , ” giggled sister Ammini , “ See sir , our prayers are answered ”.

Out efforts were fruitful . The child had started taking feeds . Soon he was sitting with support and started communicating . I felt elated . I was in seventh heaven .

Now I could face Haridas , the father of the child , confidently .
“ See , I am glad to tell you that your child Ramu is now out of danger . He will soon be discharged . This all was possible because of the continuous day and night care in this hospital .” I said .
“Yes sir , you all have done very hard work .But ….. er sir , I hid a fact from you sir” said Haridas “ that I have been giving my son miracle water of 300 yrs old village-pond secretly for last so many days . And see the result , my son has recovered . ” said Haridas in full faith .

My heaven crashed .

The Kohinoor

Recently I visited United Kingdom to participate in nephrology conference . I utilized this opportunity for tourism . I visited many places and museums . The unforgettable experience was my visit to Tower of London because here I saw Kohinoor , the diamond about which I had heard many stories since my childhood and always yearned to see it . I was dumbfounded with the beauty of it , this large glittering diamond is now glorifying the crown of her majesty , the queen of England .

The authentic history of this jewel begins in the 14th AD when it was reported to be in the possession of the rajas of Malwa. It later fell into the hands of Baber, who founded the Mogul dynasty in 1526. It decorated the peacock throne of Shah-e-jahan. During the next two centuries the diamond was one of the most prized items in the treasure of the Mogul emperors. In 1739, Nadir Shah of Persia invaded India and all of the treasures of the Moguls fell into his hands except the great diamond. Nadir Shah was told by one of the emperor's harem women that the stone was hidden in the emperor's turban. The conqueror then invited the conquered to a feast and offered to exchange turbans as a gesture of friendship. The emperor had no choice but to agree. Later, in the privacy of his tent, Nadir Shah unrolled the turban, the gem fell out, and Nadir is supposed to have exclaimed "Koh-i-noor", mountain of light.

The stone continued in the possession of the Persian dynasty, although many attempts were made to gain ownership of it. The Persian king was assassinated, and his son Shah Rukh, was deposed. In an effort to discover the whereabouts of the diamond Shah Rukh´s eyes were put out, and boiling pitch was poured on his head, but he refused steadfastly to reveal its hiding place. Later, a Persian king fled with it to the Sikh court and Ranjit Singh, the Lion of the Punjab, took the stone and wore it as a decoration. It was later placed in the Lahore treasury.

In the mean time Englishmen learnt about Sone ki chidiya , the golden bird , India and they sailed in search of it till they reached America and then Africa . Ultimately they reached the west coast of India and took permission of Jahangir (in fact from her majesty , Noor e jahan , wise queen of Jahangir , who virtually ruled India behind the
veils ) . Englishmen found that India is really very rich , had fertile lands , rich in garam masala , cotton , jute , resham , jungle wealth , coal mines , and what not ! You name it and you would find it in India .

To their great joy , Englishmen found that India is a divided lot , many kingdoms existed in India fighting with each other . Englishmen took full advantage of the situation . They had brought gun powder with them . They sided with one or other king and destroyed both . They found dishonest ministers , likes of Mirjafer who was bribed by Englishmen which led to the defeat of king of Bengal , Siraujudoulla and East India Company could set its feet in India .

After the Sikh wars, Kohinoor was taken by the East India Company as part of the indemnity levied in 1849, and was subsequently presented to Queen Victoria at a sparkling levee marking the company's 250th anniversary.

Queen Victoria thought that the jewel displayed insufficient fire . It was decided to recut it from its original Indian form. The cutting took 38 days, but did not add much to the stone's brilliance. It was rather believed that the historical value of the diamond was diminished by the cutting.

There were three good things that happened because of English rule - firstly India was benefited with the great discoveries occurring in England those days like railways , telephone and electricity. Secondly English abolished the age old horrifying custom of sati , wherein ladies were burnt alive in the pyre of their dead husbands . Last and most important benefit reaped was the formation of United states of India . Against the oppressive rule of British empire , all different states of India united and fought for freedom . In the process we have a single country of varied culture which never happened in the history of India in last thousands of years !

As a partying gift , English inflicted India with two deep wounds - they divided western India as west Pakistan and intellectual capital of India , Bengal in to west Bengal and East Pakistan .

Mother India was gifted with the crown of thorns and continues to bleed relentlessly while our Kohinoor glorifies the crown of Her Majesty , the queen of England .

The Enigmatic Smile

She had a pretty face adorned with an enigmatic smile . She was a black beauty and had I been a poet , I would have likened her to a black pearl , such was her radiance. Her soft lilting voice , her dark wavy hair dancing on her forehead and graceful walk held our attention.
We met her during our short trip to Kerala . As we drove from Cochin to Periyar we wished to quench our thirst with fruit juice . From a distance we could see a shop where fresh pine apple juice was being sold . As we stopped for a drink , the black beauty rushed towards our car. There was a spring in her steps and a welcome smile on her face. She was wearing a simple handloom sari and had a white dupatta thrown casually over her right shoulder. She ushered us to her single room mud house and made us sit comfortably on a bench made of bamboo and wood . She quickly arranged for a bamboo tripod which she lifted with her left hand and arranged in front of us in as decorative manner as was possible in her hut . Behind the hut was a small farm full of pine apple plants . They were selling freshly picked pine apple juice . The black beauty ran to the farm with a sickle , plucked a pine apple with her left hand , then dissected it into small pieces with a fine knife and then she put the pieces into a juicer . She moved the gear of the juicer with her left hand and the fresh juice started pouring in to a container .
Then she poured the juice in to big glasses and brought the tray to our table with her left hand , kept it on the bamboo tripod and served us smilingly . As we asked her about the farm she smilingly answered in broken Hindi mixed generously with Malayali. Though we could not understand everything she was saying we could understand that she and her husband were working on the farm for many years. They looked after the farm and also attended to any thirsty traveller who stopped by to have a drink. They stayed in a tiny hut on the farm itself. Every evening the landlord came and collected the days earning.
I took the glass and moved around in the farm behind that hut and later after I had finished the drink I handed over the glass to the black beauty which she collected with her left hand . I thanked her for the nice juice and for her hospitality , paid her bill and continued our journey .
As we drove ahead , my daughter asked me , ‘ Papa , did you notice something strange about that lady ? ’
I gave a thought and answered ‘ Oh yes , she was working with her left hand only .’ ‘That was because she had no right hand , she had lost her right hand in an accident long back . ’ replied my wife . I was astonished . I looked back towards the hut , there stood the black beauty waving at us with her left hand and a beautiful heavenly smile on her serene face .
‘ God has gifted us with so much but we understand the importance of such divinely gifts only when we loose them . See this young lady who has lost her hand but look how happy she is . Even in this dire poverty where she and her family are practically living hand to mouth , she is able to smile forgetting that she has lost her right hand . Look at the radiance on her face . She is helping her family from dawn to dusk . She is contented . She has no grudges , ’ said my wife . We were all dumb founded .
Truly we all live but only a few live life fully .

Nest of Love

Since few days , a bird was frequenting my home , and soon followed its mate . Throughout the day the couple would chatter and make lovely sounds . The male bird was dark black in color with beautiful dark red collar . The female was slightly smaller in size , but fully dark . They selected a corner in verandah of our house . Soon they started building a nest .

Throughout day and night , they brought shreds of paper , grass , tiny branches of shrubs and twined these in to a tiny but beautiful nest . We eagerly observed the growth of the nest . Soon the nest was ready . It took about 5 days for them to build the nest . All of a sudden , chattering stopped . We wondered as to what had happened . Soon we discovered that the female had laid eggs - off white eggs with brownish tinge . Throughout the day , she sat on the eggs and incubated . She would sit still for hours together. Her size was larger than the size of the nest . Her wings would remain outside the nest while she sat there patiently . It became a routine for me to see the bird before going out for my work . The first thing I used to do after coming back was to have a look at the nest and see whether there was any sign of new born . The days passed by and every day appeared very long for me . I was not able to hide my eagerness to see the new comers .

There was enthusiasm in our home , my kids were very excited .
“ Papa , what are they doing ?”, asked my youngest daughter .
“ They have built a home , and now they have laid the eggs , and soon tiny kids will be born ,” replied my wife .
“ The way we were born ?” asked the tiny tot . My wife smiled .

The birds remained silent throughout the period of incubation . There was no chattering . Soon the tiny little ones were born . These were featherless bundle of muscle mass with closed eyes and tiny beaks . We all congratulated each other as if there was a new born in our own family .

The mother bird brought eatables and fed the new born , the father bird was hanging around nearby keeping a close watch on the kids .

Often we found the kids were alone and protruding their beaks out as if they were very hungry . Soon the mother would arrive carrying some insects to feed the young ones . The kids started growing . They started making noise and soon chattering restarted . The hungry kids would shout as if they were demanding food and the mother bird would chatter as if to assure that soon the food would be available . The moment , mother bird would arrive with food , the chattering and eagerness of the kids increased . They would jostle among each other to get their share of food .

Once early morning there was a call from my hospital to attend an emergency . I got ready in a huff and rushed to the hospital . As I was nearing the gate , a frail voice called me back . I looked back - my mother was calling me back.

My mother is about to complete her ninth decade . She has tremors involving her hands and tongue . She is lean and thin . Her face is full of wrinkles of wisdom and experience . She is an abode of love , affection and strength for me . I have always remained a tiny kid for her . She was calling me back .

“ Why don’t you have some food and then go to hospital to see patients . After all your return is unpredictable .” said my mother with a trembling voice . She had slowly come out of her room , walked with shaky steps up to the door and called me . Even in most urgent situations , I could never say no to her . I turned back to the dining table . She served breakfast for me . I gulped my breakfast in a hurry . She felt relieved once I finished eating .

As I started back for my work , I heard the chattering of the birds again – I looked at the nest - mother bird was feeding her kids .

All mothers are same , so I thought .

Just cool that heat off

All TV channels , news papers and tabloids are agog with violence , murders , loots , rape and rage . These have become very routine so much so that these appear to be very insignificant events which do not merit any mention .
A brother killing brother , son attacking father , wife plotting against husband and a jealous lover kills his beloved because she did not give an ear to him . What exactly is happening ? Why so much intolerance ?

When a person is angry , momentarily the faculty of reasoning fails . It is difficult to judge good from bad . If an action is done during a fit of rage , almost always it backfires . This results in loss of peace , self respect , respect in society and creates enmity . Then whatever a person may try to undo that action , he does not recover that respect and dignity again .

Many a times a situation arises when it is difficult to control one self . My teacher said , “Count ten , your anger would subside , if you are very-very angry , better count hundred ”. What he meant was that one should never take a precipitous action in the fit of anger . Better cool down , relax and then act if at all you must . One of my acquaintance resigned from the job in a fit of rage only to find that he has landed himself and his family in a financial soup. When I look back , I recollect many events when I expressed my dislikes instantly without giving a thought and almost always I had to eat an humble pie .

One of the ways to win over an unpleasant situation is to see the events from opposition point of view . We tend to judge only one side of the story while often the opposite side has also some substance . This simulates situation of Dhritarashtra who never saw anything wrong in the actions of his son Duryodhan . Even in our day today life we tend to over react in a situation which otherwise could have been ignored .

We often form an opinion without judging the circumstances in which an event happens . Once I expressed my displeasure to my daughter for not listening to me . She started weeping with her hands hiding a piece of paper . I snatched the paper from her hand and found it to be a hand made greeting card with the ‘ Happy birth day , Papa ’ written on it . She was busy in drawing the card when I was calling her . She thought that she would surprise me by offering the hand made birth day wish card but instead she got a firing . I had hurt the innocent child without realizing her sentiments . I took her in my arms with moist eyes .

There are usually three driving forces which make us move . These are name ( or fame ) , money ( or property ) and sex . Most of the problems we see around revolve around these three driving forces . We tend to run after these forces . The craving for these is insatiable . The thirst for these can never be quenched .
Most of the crimes committed are due to one or more of these forces . In today’s rat race of life , we have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values . We have reached Moon and Mars but we do not get time to meet our neighbor staying very next door .

We tend to be angry when our ego is hurt . We tend to be egoistic if we are empty within . Every time we get angry , we are in fact defeated by ourselves , for it is easy to get angry but difficult not to be ! Those who are full of love , will always forgive and forget . In the history of mankind we find that only those are remembered with affection who have sacrificed , be it Jesus , mother Teresa , Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King . We would like to forget likes of Hitler and Saddam .

During my childhood , whenever for some reason I got angry on any one , my mother would say ‘ krodhe paap , paape mrityu ’ which means , it is sinful to get angry as anger causes self destruction . There are innumerable incidences in the history where anger resulted in self destruction . Whether we talk about mighty Ravana or Duryodhana , it was anger that eventually destroyed them .

Be a little tolerant , hold little patience , sacrifice few egos and extend your hand of love , try to understand other’s point of view and if all these do not prevent you from getting angry , keep the gun aside and just cool that heat off .

The lighter side of darkness

For the aam aadmi , i.e. the common man the load shedding has proved to be a boon in disguise .
It has instilled a sense of punctuality , endurance , discipline among the masses and also has taught value of money to common man .
Load shedding has taught us the value of time . The government offices are having record attendance now a days . The employees do not have to work as due to load shedding , computers do not work. Once the lights are back , they can do overtime to compensate for lost hours !
Nothing can be more punctual than load shedding schedules . I often correct my watch timings with time of load shedding . By and large electricity department never follow Indian standard time while applying load shedding . They possibly follow Green witch timings , as at exact time , the lights would go off .
The load shedding may help in reducing country’s population by default . By and large during our most crucial moments , the lights go off. When a patient is very critically sick , needs to be brought to the hospital by lift , or needs to be hooked to a cardiac monitor , the lights would go off . The patient undergoing major surgeries or dialysis , or infants in the premature baby unit suffer most .
The wives of the surgeons are very happy as they are now finding their better halves more at home than in the hospital . Their children have also started identifying their parents as their doctor parents find more time for children due to load shedding .
The parents are happy too . The children who had become addicted to television serials are now back to the study tables with kerosene lamps !
Earlier due to well lit nights , the stars in the sky were not visible but now we regularly watch the sky and wonder the creative skills of the Creator . The moon has regained its lost glory , it blesses the world with its soothing light during load shedding hours .
Besides human beings , the vertebrates and invertebrates too are joyful due to load shedding . The mosquitoes are happy as the mosquito repellents are mostly electricity dependent . These are the days of merry making for these poor tiny creatures . After all they also need to survive ! Mosquitoes also help in controlling countries’ population by inflicting humane with dengue and malaria .
The mosquito-net sellers are also very happy . They had never seen such a boom in sales of mosquito nets .
The people dealing with inverters and generators are more than happy now a days . Their sales have soared high . Sale of petrol or diesel have also soared high , as the generators need fuel to produce power . It is but natural for the prices of these commodities to go up .
All the good and auspicious works are done during early morning hours , i.e. bramha-muhurtum . Similarly all the black deeds are done in dark hours of night . The thieves and dacoits have hay - day now , thanks to load shedding . The petty thieves and chain snatchers are turning in to full time thieves . The thieves are becoming dacoits . I wonder whether the dacoits would now think of joining politics and bring a constitution amendment to make load shedding compulsory !
Because of hot climate and mosquitoes , people are not getting peaceful sleep during load shedding . The staticians dealing with demography are predicting that there is a likelihood of population boom for obvious reasons !
Load shedding at times may create funny situations . In a town in South India , during a period of load shedding , in a mass marriage ceremony , a groom garlanded a wrong bride in the darkness and a bride in turn garlanded her own friend instead of the groom . Fortunately the wrongs were detected in the right time and then the elders of the family did the needful to rectify the mistakes .
In spite of so many benefits , the aam aadmi are the unhappy lot . These poor , stupid , so called tolerant chaps are drained off and virtually squeezed to the extent of intolerance due to load shedding .