Santhosh's ramblings

Unusual for us, we found ourselves on the road this time on Christmas eve and Christmas day. For me personally, I did not look forward to it. Brought up in the tradition of Christmas eve carols services, (which has been given up many years back when we moved out of our home state) Christmas morning services, meetings with friends etc., a Christmas on the move was not something I was happy with. So to motivate myself, I reflected   on the Christmas story and took comfort in the fact that Mary and Joseph travelled 90 kms on foot (in full term pregnancy), Shepherds travelled from far outside town, into town, late in the night or may be early hours of the morning, the wise men set out on a tedious long journey…..Till someone pointed out that these people travelled out of dreams visions and political compulsions, and I was left wondering what vision dream or political compulsion drove me this Christmas…. I took a book to read during the journey and the back cover caught my attent...

As we look around in the global leadership circles, political and otherwise, we are clearly seeing some common trends. The type of leaders that seems to connect with the majority are those who can appeal to the perceived aspirations of the powerful and the majority. Or the middle class who are the majority. The connect is through the power of rhetoric, and charisma, offering them what they want to hear, generally an immediate promise of a resource rich economy. Some use polarizations based on certain groups or ideologies as the binding force, but whatever it is, it the ability to connect and offer what the so-called majority seem to aspire that set these leaders apart. The aspirations of the majority are, what they themselves see as best for them, the resources they require. The person who can “connect” is their leader and even adulated by some as their “saviour”. For e.g., If they have been longing for bread and these leaders, respond – “Last many years they have not offered w...

The last few days, spending time in my home town and state, has been an interesting time. Primarily reliving memories of my parents who passed away recently as I tried to sort out some legal and other paper work. I spend time with friends and relatives, banks and government offices sorting out paper work.  During the various sharing of memories, we would talk much about the legacy left by parents, but at the end, would come back to one matter – the current Surgical strike on money by our respected Prime Minister. No talk in the last 4 days, happened without some discussion on the money issue. Which was in one way revealing - how much our lives are linked to “money” and how life revolves around money and the resources we need and have…. Sitting in a bank manager’s office for three days, filling up forms and papers (not for this crisis!) I kept hearing stories of people who walked in to ask opinion from the manager how to survive these crises. There were many who through this su...

A casual conversation with the husband and the curt reply revealed many things. The issue was around can the patient stay for a few days more in the hospital. The immediate response was, sorry we have run out of money, we must take her home. I called the husband aside and told that, whatever the hospital expenses we will take care of, take care of only the drugs. He was not keen. The patient was his wife. She had a Cardiac illness – a valve narrowed, which she did not know about. She was brought with a stroke and in the hospital, the underlying heart disease was diagnosed. They never had any check-up prior to this though she was symptomatic. Subsequently, she went into severe cardiac failure, and had to be on ventilator for few days. Back in the ward, she developed pneumonia and had to go back to intensive care for another few days. Throughout all these ups and downs, the husband was with her. At one point of time, some of us discussed and thought of explaining to the husband, the...

A few days back in one of our social networking groups there was this discussion on “clinical examination in Medicine” – recovering a lost art. There were discussions regarding the importance of the same, at the same time the challenges of doing a full examination in the midst of very busy OPD with each doctor seeing 40 to 50 patients in an hour or so. One of the senior consultants remarked about the 6 th sense we need to develop if are to work in busy set ups, where one develops a sense of recognising patients who need full examination and evaluation. As I was participating in the discussions, I was taken back in memory to my early experiences in the art of clinical medicine under a very astute clinician. I remember, one evening as a Junior Medical officer, working up a patient for about 2 to 3 hours, and coming to a possible diagnosis of “Malabsorption Syndrome” after a full history, clinical examination and investigations. I was quite satisfied with myself, having been able to...

A young man in 20’s came to us, after attempting to commit suicide. Couple of days after being on ventilator support and on the way to recovery, his story came out. Sobbing, he told us this story…. He is from the neighbouring country, and was educated till the 10 th standard. Not able to find work, he went off to Malaysia, having had paid 200,000/- NRs to a middle man for the job. The job which he was doing over the year was a 12 to 14 hours’ job, lifting heavy weights, 7 days a week with one day off every month. Physically and emotionally abused if he and his friends do not fulfil the owners’ expectations, being beaten up very frequently, and earning about 12 to 14 ,000/- per month. It came to a point that he could not go any further and he objected to this treatment. And he had to come back, but he went back to the job after paying a fine of 75,000/-. But after going back, he could not continue since the treatment worsened and he and his 3 friends came back. Having had used up ...

"Rather, prophetic ministry consists of offering an alternative perception of reality and in letting people see their own history in the light of God’s freedom and his will for justice. The issues of God’s freedom and his will for justice are not always and need not be expressed primarily in the big issues of the day. They can be discerned wherever people try to live together and show concern for their shared future and identity. So these dimensions of prophetic ministry arise from our study:  1. The task of prophetic ministry is to evoke an alternative community that knows it is about different things in different ways. And that alternative community has a variety of relationships with the dominant community.  2. The practice of prophetic ministry is not some special thing done two days a week. Rather, it is done in, with, and under all the acts of ministry—as much in counseling as in preaching, as much in liturgy as in education. It concerns a stance and postur...