Santhosh's ramblings

It was two years back, we as a family had to go through demise of our mother, after a rather fast progressive dementia. The experience of releasing our mother to a fast progressing inevitable end, was tough but we learned much through that experience. For me trained as a physician, releasing to death was ingrained in my mind as failure. To realize that releasing was inevitable is the best that can happen in the given context, made the bereavement process easier. This experience did change my perspectives much. Subsequently as I practiced and taught medicine, I would advise families about releasing their loved ones. I would teach junior doctors about thinking through these issues before we communicate with the family. And i felt i had matured in my thinking. Till this week. I have been sitting beside my father who has a CRF and fracture pelvis struggling in pain. Trying various permutations and combinations of pain killers, but realising that he has lost his will to live. He has had...

How did this change happen? Freedom to celebrate each other diverse as we are? This did not happen overnight or naturally nor is complete. It is an ongoing journey.  But many played key roles in this transition. (I, for most times was a silent observer!) We started off as being forcibly put together due to circumstances, as a batch of 1978. We had to live together come what may for the next 5 years at least. And so we were forced to “tolerate each other”. We formed our cliques and groups where we were more comfortable within the batch itself. For that matter, there were multiple groups and group allegiances. The dissection group was the first. That was outside our control. The rest were within our control. The political groups out of political leanings, the day scholars, the hostellers, the local paying guest groups, the Young Turks (Pre degree group), the seniors (Achayans) etc. We even had an apolitical group named as “Moofens” – not sure how this word originated! In t...

I remember my early years in the Medical college where I studied. We had Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Atheists all under the same roof. We knew where each one was in terms of their religion and faith. But it never mattered. What mattered was, we were the batch of 1978. We are still the batch of 1978. My roommate was a Hindu and a Marxist. Yes we had our share of politics, but that was in line with the dominant political movements of those times, but never in the name of religion. Some of us who were not happy with the dominant political movements, remained apolitical and that was respected by the politically active. Some of us were strong in their religious faiths. I being one such example. But that never reduced our friendship or relationships in any way.  We respected each other’s faith and beliefs and gave space for that.   I did not even know the caste of any one - nor do I know till today! I remember five of us deciding to go on a tour. This tour took us to a Ch...