Maternal Instinct

Wiping the sleepy eyes and looking at the rising sun through the window, Kashmi realized she was already late. It was getting tougher for her to stop worrying about her little baby at home and resist the urge to leave. But then, she knew she hasn't yest finished at work and might have to stay back until she's completed.

It's just one month since Kashmi gave birth to a baby girl. As a single mother with no one to look after, she had no other choice but to get back to work at the earliest. Following delivery, the day she felt she could move around without much difficulty, Kashmi got back to her routine. Had she chosen not to, she would starve and so would her newborn.

Every evening, as she left for job, she would leave the child with the old lady with whom she shared a small hut. The old lady, who once lived the life of Kashmi, would look after the kid until the mother took over and then leave to scavenge the near by town. In return, Kashmi was happy to share a part of whatever little food she could manage with the old lady.

In most cases, Kashmi is back home soon after the conical speakers of the nearby temple blurted out the ritual Suprabhatham. On reaching home, the first thing she would do was to put her sweet little baby girl to her breast.  

The sense of motherhood she felt as the baby suckled on those breasts, drowned her in a sense of well being and made her feel at the top of the world. This would help her forget all the hardships she faced in earning just enough to eat as much as she needed to nurse her baby.

Footprints

Image courtesy: http://hersilent-thoughts.blogspot.com

On this tortuous lane of life,

I serve all those baffled souls.

Staying witness en this route,
Let me warn you once or more.

Route that brought you until here,

Splits in two and takes you home.

Roads are not as plain as past;

Careful when you take your step.

Having traveled miles at ease,

This might look that simple too.

In your quest for perennial light,

Things are more that you must know.

Last Words - An Unfinished Deathbed Talk.

This is an excerpt from the diary entry I made on the morning after a busy duty, a few years back.

I'm about to finish my 24 hours duty. Will have to pull on till Dr X turns up and can return back to my quarters. Yesterday was hectic and not a single minute I could sleep last night. I had 4 patients in the ICU, 53 patients in the ward, 20 new admissions and 7 causality calls. God alone knows, how many hours it's going to take in handing over the previous night to Dr X.

Image courtesy: kevinmd.com

My dear diary, I'm sad. A patient admitted yesterday for close monitoring and evaluation in our FMW is no more. I know, this is not the first time we are losing patients. I have not mentioned about any of them after the first month of my clinical years. But this incident was unique and heart breaking.  

Last night, after my causality call at 12.05 am, I was walking through the corridor of Female Medical Ward (FMW) when I saw light in the last cubical. As I crossed the nursing station, the ward sister woke up from her midnight trance and joined me thinking I was on a midnight rounds.

Teachers and Tortures.

[This is a piece of writing that I found in one of my old notebooks. Though I wrote it in pain, distress and hatred, today, this teaches me an invaluable lesson as a budding medical teacher. Sharing it with you all  as it is. No offence for the words used. 

A note for the teacher in the context: If you haven't changed, and wish to change at-least now, do it, for you were a total failure then . Else stop teaching.] 

Rape - The Curse Of Our Day.

INDIA - CURSE 2012

Was she belle for just then,

As she weaved her dream so fine?

If he cared to spare that  bleb,

Then it's life that trails her way.

My Friend Is A Porn Star.

Last month when my friend Liva, who works for a foreign based porn company came down to India (wait. don't waste time Google'ing her name. She is known by a different screen name in the industry), we met at a friends party and dined together. There, I introduced her to few of my close male friends and they were all drooling behind her since then. 

The Life - Sentence

On a thin paper, is there a saga.  

Sentence I am, part of that tale,  

Starting in caps, period it ends,  

Scribbling across, all in my part.  

Standing  as  one, spaces  apart, 

Senseless at all, the letters I use.

Grouping it once,spacing it then, 

Deep in a mind, they play a role. 

Putting  across, the  tale  of a life,

Beauty of which,a moral it holds, 

Neither in ink, nor on the stroke, 

Is that I care,but choice of words. 

As thin a paper,a sentence it holds,
Brief in it's length,but conveys  it all.

On a thin paper,the sentence I am, 

Written with love,is part  of  this tale.

Image courtesy : http://goinswriter.com/ via Google Image Search



 

A Ray Of Hope

Another amateur attempt at poetry. Looking forward for your feedback so that I can improve upon it. 

Romantic Hypnosis

It was one of those summer evening classes we attended at school, for additional tuition and better scores. Unlike the routine, my session got over early and I was waiting for my friends to start our evening cricket. The wait seemed to be very long. Secretly, through the window, I signaled my friends in the class that I would meet them at the regular place and walked towards the kindergarten block of the school.

Our school kindergarten block, being isolated from the main building is perhaps the most silent, less illuminated and less frequented area in the evening. The place had all the qualities for a bunch of high secondary boys to chose as their regular meeting place and so we did. It was almost our exclusive territory after class hours. In addition, I had another emotional attachment to that place. To lie down on the slides at kids play area there and dream endlessly looking at the beautiful sky was one of the favorite evening hobbies.

Signatures That Are Worth A Crore and More!

I’m waiting outside a public official's chamber to get a document countersigned. Those of you who had an experience will know the agony and distress I'm currently undergoing. 

In fact, it is not that bad as in the past. The officer who is about to sign my document is a responsible man and never keeps anything pending for the next day. That was a relief.

Let us not discus much on the struggles, delay and the hardships of getting things done from "some" officials who get their pay from our pockets. Instead, let me try to throw some light on that totally neglected aspect: The economic part. 

If you were with me today, you would see 172 people (yes, I counted) waiting outside this office with me since morning. All of them have taken a day off from work and are here for some valid reasons.

Now, I'm going to stretch a little bit of my rusted basic mathematical skills to derive at some critical values.

Assuming average income lost per person standing here (I know its actually much more)	=Rs 400/day
Total income lost by 172 people per day	= 400 x 172  = Rs. 68,800

There are 8 such offices here in this building.
Assuming all the offices have the same strength outside;

Total Income lost by waiting outside these 8 offices per day

= 68,800 x 8 = Rs 5,50,400

Assuming the office works 20 days of the month;

Total income lost per month

= 5,50,400 x 20  = Rs. 1,10,08,000

Yes! ONE CRORE TEN LAKH AND EIGHT THOUSAND RUPEES PER MONTH.

Is that signature you get on that piece of paper worth the money?

To give you a contrast, 2 years back, I got the same document work done by a public official of a different country. There, sitting in my office, it just took 5 minutes to apply on-line and upload a few documents. The certificate arrived the third day by post without a single day loss of pay and manpower.

May be its high time we upgrade.

From ".com" to ".in" - What a changeover mama ?

After a series of events that surprised me with an unusual ".in" instead of ".com" on some Indian blog URLs (and finally mine), a fellow blogger clarified things today.

Help Save A life. Will you?

In my previous post (Last Words - An Unfinished Deathbed Talk), I did mention about C.P.R being done during a medical emergency. I thought I'll share this informative video on how to handle a cardiac emergency by yourself before the trained assistance arrives.  

This video will take just 3 minutes and you might be able to help save a life in emergency. Isn't that worth?  So please go ahead & ClicK "play" button.

-HOW TO PERFORM ADULT C.P.R (CARDIO-PULMONARY RESUSCITATION)-

A Randy Noble Romance.

My second attempt at poetry. Please let me know what you think.

Urns

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The yarn of a blest

Deep in the chest, holds our mourn

For the Ash of gone.

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This is my first ever try at poetry. So please leave your comments and suggestions to improve. 

This post is linked to the HAIKU HEIGHTS weekly haiku prompts. Hope this follows Haiku, or Senryu norms. 

Photo courtesy: Discarded clay urns, Bhag Nari,... by Ameer Hamza (flickr.com) via Goole Image Search.

P.S: Read on Burial urns. 

Red

Here's a twister: Try articulating it like you would with other tongue twisters. Then try it again with eyes closed. Once you have got that right, think of an answer. :)

" IF RED IS READ AS BREAD AND THREAD IS READ AS RED, CAN BREAD BE RED AS THREAD?"

A friend calls her blog RED HANDED. The name fascinates me as much as her blog posts and is the inspiration behind this twister.. 

Unexpressed Emotions - A friend's love story.

Today, I accompanied an old friend to the beach. He is “meeting a special person” (that is the exact phrase he used) after a long gap of 10 years. She studied junior to him at pre-college, and after she got transferred, this is their first meeting.

My friend resides a bit far, around 4 hours drive from this town. Today morning he drove all the way to attend an event of 2 long sessions spanning 5 hours each. He chose this place because he knew she lived here and wanted a reason to come here. Though meeting her was itself a reason with much greater validity, he did not want it to appear so.

Topless Bold Lady on World Cleavage Day!

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World cleavage day!

I don’t know why it’s celebrated and who celebrates it. But all I know: it’s all about breast and hence this post is going to be on breast, BREAST CANCER in specific. Now that I have your attention, before I share the link to the topless lady's picture, I'll talk a little about few myths that commonly prevail about breast cancer and then move on to the current breast cancer screening recommendations.

2 Lives:2 Miles Apart

2 Lives:2 Miles Apart are series of short films that highlights crucial issues impacting children in an urbanized world based on it's "THE STATE OF THE WORD'S CHILDREN-2012: CHILDREN IN AN URBAN WORLD" report, released by UNICEF.

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS ON THE UNICEF-INDIA FACEBOOK PAGE (link).

Content courtesy: UNICEF India

I lost my wisdom!

Today, let me tell you about my loss. I lost my wisdom at around 11.10 in the morning that too around 40 km away from home.

The procedure began at 11 in the morning. The shot of the local that knocked down the sensation on my right part of my mouth including the tip of my tongue, made me sense nothing other then a feeling of somebody trying to stick a tooth pick between my teeth.

The final two minutes, the time when the doc manipulated the tooth with pressure, I nearly screamed out aloud. I even thought I should just jump out of the table and run. But I knew there was no choice.

The verbal anesthesia he instilled, held me on to the chair. Every time his hands made a move I felt it deep in my jaw bone as if it’s going to split into two. Finally at the end of the second minute, I heard a “click” from some where near my right ear and that was it. He changed his instrument and with that he held my wisdom tooth on the right side and it was out in seconds.

I’ve had a dental extraction, that too the last molar which is supposed to be extremely painful post operative. I’m here blogging, absolutely painless (or at least I’m not ready to accept the pain) despite deliberately skipping the analgesic that I m prescribed.

May be it’s his expertise in the procedure that has made it possible. Or is it just because of the confidence that I have in him that’s masking the pain? But whatever be the reason, I m happy for having lost a problematic tooth with just two minutes of pain and discomfort. 



So dear 2012, here I come in few hours into your arms without the so called wisdom, that hurt my cheeks for nearly a month. 


Wish you all A Very Happy New Year!

Paneer Coconut Incognito

With an intention to prepare something out of paneer, a bunch of stumbling amateurs, me, my sister and cousin, entered the kitchen. Here's how we did it and what we finally got.


Ingredients

	Ingredients		Form	Quatity
1	Paneer		Cut into cubes	200g
2	Onion		Chopped	3 No.
3	Tomatoes		Chopped	3 No.
4	Garlic		Finely hopped	4 cloves
5	Ginger		Finely chopped	1 pc medium size
6	Green chilies		Chopped	4 no.
7	Coconut		Sieved milk	1 cup
8	Lemon		Juice	1/2 tsp
9	Badam		Paste	1/4 cup
10	Cumin seeds		-	1/2 tsp
11	Coriander Powder		-	1 . 1//2 tsp
12	Ghee		-	3 tsp + 1tsp
13	Milk powder		-	1 tsp
14	Coriander leaf		Chopped	Few
15	Salt		-	To taste
16	Red chili dry			2-3 no.
17	Mustard seeds		-	1/2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Heat 3tsp ghee in a vessel.
2. Add cumin seed and onion and fry till onion softens. Keep stirring regularly.
3. Now add chopped ginger and garlic and continue frying for 2 minutes.
4. Now add chopped tomatoes and green chili and continue frying in medium flame till tomatoes are cooked.
5. Add Coriander powder and red chilly powder and stir well.
6. Add badam paste and continue stirig.
7. Add Coconut milk and mix well.
8. Add Paneer cubes and a teaspoon of milk powder.
9. Add salt to taste
10. Cook with lid closed until panner is cooked. And then leave the mixture aside.

Garnishing: I

1. Heat 1 teaspoon of ghee in a separate deep pan.
2. Add mustard and wait until it settles.
3. Then add 2 dry red chilies (split into two) to it and stir.
4. Transfer the previous preparation to this vessel and mix well.

Garnishing: II

1. Add a teaspoon lemon juice and mix well.
2. Wither the finely chopped coriander leaves on top of the the dish.
   
   
   -PANEER COCONUT INCOGNITO IS READY-