Santhosh's ramblings

It was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who wrote this is  The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 .  “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained”  A man who experienced evil at hand of the powers of his nation.  And C S Lewis wrote “We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it…. Elsewhere he wrote - “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or ra

IDPs (Internally Displaced People) - a technical term to give some “respect” to displaced people. Such technical terms give some legitimacy to the common man for ignoring these numbers. Intentionally or by ignorance. Things that are too technical are not worth spending too much of time thinking about.    But if you really look at these IDPs, a large percentage of these are “Intentionally Displaced People” by the powers that be for larger agenda’s which we will never come to know in our generation. History and media being in the hands of the powers that be, we in our generation might only hear what the powers want us to hear. The truth might never reach our ears.   If you talk to some of these displaced people, internally or intentionally, whatever way you want to see it, they are “homeless”. But we would never include them in homeless because that will skew our data and statistics!    Humanity and leadership have developed ways of technicalizing these terms and hiding numbers by reclas

A communication from a friend requesting for prayer this week. I have cut and pasted as it is….   “Please pray for a 12-year-old girl R who was admitted with us a week back with alleged hanging. She was very sick, and she almost died. Now she is better by God's grace. Yesterday she told us that she has been forcefully tied down and sexually abused multiple times by someone in the village. Later that man told her to hang herself. We are trying to file a POSCO case, but the parents are not at all interested. They just want to take her home.”   “The police came and interviewed the girl. The parents are refusing to stand by her. Her mother even told the police that the girl is a fool, and she keeps saying things like this. As these things happened 2 weeks ago there are no marks of abuse on her body. So, we don't know how the police will take it forward without any evidence.”   “This is apparently a common occurrence in B. Parents of the abused girl rarely support the girl. They wou

The season is changing. The winter is officially setting in. Not yet but. It is that interim season - where nights are chilly and days are warm and at times hot too. The west calls it fall but what we have is a short transition season.  When it is too hot we are waiting for winter. When it is too cold, we are waiting for the early summer months but of course dreading the height of summer. But then with climate change and planetary health changing there has been climatory havoc. The  expected dry summer full of rain, the rainy season with no rain but dry heat, winters either too cold or not cold at all, confusing seasons of havoc. But in the midst of all this havoc, we do know that there will be change soon. Through transitory seasons for another season to emerge. Has this not been true for life too, these last few years of even a decade or so. A season of havoc for many.  Last weekend I heard about a friend being diagnosed with cancer and struggling through this season. I listened to 2

Yesterday was a mortality audit. Sitting through discussions on why the patient died. A pregnant patient who was kept in a government hospital for hours with seizures and then at last minute referred to higher centres for care. Being brought unconscious, baby In the womb about to die, mother too in the last stages, with extensive pneumonia and sepsis, the team had to decide between life of the baby or mother. Taking risk a healthy baby was delivered and the mother pulled through fine too. But over next 24 hours mother succumbed to the extensive pneumonia and sepsis that had set her on a downward course, due to delays in reaching the hospital.  A not so uncommon event in rural India or the invisible Bharat, though these are not part of the visible India or Bharat. Many questions were asked and reflected on. What could have been done, was there anything more that we could have done, despite the delay in reaching the institution etc.  As I was listening to these conversations, a few thoug

Gardening for me is to plant, water and wait. I am not very knowledgeable nor keen to replant, prune or do any active engagement. The result, wild growth of plants that grow on their own, premature death or stunting of others, plants that could have had much better growth. I am okay with this since gardening is not a passion but a time to dissociate from other engagements for short period of time during busy hours. But I learnt something yesterday. The touch that transforms! We have close family staying with us for a few days. Yesterday I went out for work and when I returned, the two small gardens inside the house had been transformed. I thought there was a beauty in the wild growth of yesterday, but the pruned, replanted, repotted, and repositioned was a different site to behold and enjoy.   The handiwork of two close relatives, one a retired agricultural technocrat, who has a breathtaking garden in her house and a senior lady, who has spent all her life caring for plants. This combi

    I get up in the morning and my mind is buzzing. Pump to be switched on (water comes only for an hour), clothes to be washed, coffee to be made, the morning ablutions to be completed, bed to be made etc before I sit down for a my set aside quiet time.  But then the WhatsApp is waiting  - the muted beeps have been beckoning me for some time – the multiple personal and group messages, though many archived, waiting to be read acknowledged and replied to. What will WhatsApp app feel if I ignore it and of course my friends too! Now that they know how to check if I have read it – I do not want them to think that I ignore them.  But since I opened the WhatsApp, might as well go to Instagram and see who has responded to my pictures and ‘smart comments’! And the blog I had put up – has it been seen, in my WhatsApp status and Instagram. I might as well check it while I am on my mobile.  I also need to know what are things I have for today in my calendar. Since calendar is open might as well c