Santhosh's ramblings

Last week, a friend came to me for a medical opinion. He is diabetic, hypertensive, and has some airway diseases. After listening to his concerns, I asked him about his current medications—a routine question for any physician.     He began taking out packets of medications, one after another. Each packet contained at least three different types of medicines.      First packet: Medications for diabetes prescribed by a diabetologist. "But then," he added, "I was travelling, and a family friend’s doctor told me to add one more tablet, so I’m taking this too."      Second packet: Medications for blood pressure, prescribed by a cardiologist. "Since I felt funny at night, I started taking this twice a day instead of once, as originally instructed. And sometimes, when I feel my BP is high, I take another tablet given by my friend's doctor, just in case."   Third packet: Medications for his cough—two tablets he had been taking regularly.  F...

Seasons change; it is a fact of life. How much should I change or should I change itself is the question!  One thing I have enjoyed in the North has been the changing seasons - winter and a short spring, the long summer with a short monsoon added in, and then the short autumn. Despite the severity of some seasons, there is always something to hope for: this too shall pass! Some other parts of our nation have only hot, hotter, hottest, hot and humid, and back to hot. (I am not really looking forward to this.  😞 )   What we learn from observing these changes is that many things change, but some things do not. Many things perish, but new life emerges. Observe the tree outside our window. Leaves turn yellow; most fall and die, but soon, new ones emerge. Birds move out for some time but return. Some birds keep watch, like watchmen waiting for dawn to appear and for the season to change, since their habitat is also affected by seasonal change! Amid all these changes, the tree ...

I refused to conquer my fears a couple of months back. We were on a family vacation, and my son-in-law decided to go for a swim in the ocean and snorkelling.     I should not have tried it - snorkelling. Maybe I wanted to prove that I was not inferior when it came to facing challenges in life. Perhaps I refused to accept that I was not as young as I thought I was—or maybe something much deeper was at play. He knew how to swim well, while I had a mortal fear of water! I still can’t understand why I decided to snorkel.     Cutting the story short, with goggles and an air tube in place, I gently entered the water, but I refused to release my hand from the rope that guided us into the snorkelling area. I had a life jacket securely fastened around my body, too! Yet, after a few futile attempts to let go, float, and experience what could have been a once-in-a-lifetime moment, I returned disappointed.     Reflecting on this experience, three things ...

It is interesting to follow political and national leadership these days. A few stray thoughts from following the news lately: leaders do not operate in a vacuum but respond to a cultural phenomenon we are all part of. In one sense, I, too, hold on to it!     The Connection to Yesterday   The connection to yesterday manifests in three ways. The most common is blaming the past—everything today is because of what happened yesterday. Even if they have been in power for a few years, the problem is not with what happened yesterday but the day before yesterday.     Another way the past is viewed is through rejection. If their opposition was in power yesterday, they would reject everything from the past and undo it—or repackage the same things as if they were new and revolutionary.     The third way they sometimes see the past is by glorifying the "good old days," which most people have forgotten. They create a mythical past to inspire people to dre...

If we look at last week’s stories from around the world, they will either numb us or challenge us. The stampede in Prayagraj left 30 dead, though the numbers are questionable. Reports from ground zero say the numbers might be far higher.  The flight accident in the USA, where a helicopter and an AA jet collided, resulted in 75+ deaths. Many of us might not have even heard about the ongoing crisis in the DRC (Goma), which has left 700 dead.   These are the events that caught media attention—Prayagraj because it is the largest religious festival in the world, the USA because it’s the USA, and the DRC in some circles because of the tantalum interest for developed nations.  Around the same time, there have been more deaths in Ukraine and many other parts of the world that did not catch media attention—either because the numbers did not matter, the interest had waned, or they were deemed not worth talking about. (It is "they" and "out there!") Numbers numb because li...

Travelling and living in rural India are always educational. The last blog I wrote about such a journey was a year ago. You can read that   here . This time was different! Most of my conversations were with the “Literate” and “Developed” who had moved to the location to serve the illiterate and undeveloped community. However, after a couple of hours of conversation, I was confused about our terminologies and understanding. It was clear that the villagers were illiterate, except for the young generation attending English-medium schools. One of my friends said that people in these villages are 50 years behind other rural communities in India. I took this at face value.  But the conversations that followed were revealing. The illiterate, undeveloped communities had three things which we, the developed and literate, have longed for! One – Community with clarity.   I heard about how the whole village works together in the fields. How families help each other to plant and harve...