चिंतित चंदा (The worried moon)
एक दिन चंदा सोचता सोचताजा के अपनी माँ से बोलामैं भी क्यों न सूरज की तरहहर वक़्त रहता सुंदर सा गोला? माँ ने उसको बड़ा समझाया -अभी तो है झिंगोला सिलवायाघटे बढ़ें वो तेरी तरहऐसा ही उसका नाप करवाया अब ये क्या है तुमने ठानीएक ही आकार में क्यों है रहना?सबका अपना स्टाइल है बेटातुझे…
Total Solar Eclipse: April 8th, 2024
Months of anticipation… for a few minutes of an experience that can truly only be felt. It cannot be captured in films and videos and essays. Still, I am writing because… I dont know why… but I am writing… I had experienced my first solar eclipse as a 7 year old in India. After numerous…
Oppenheimer
Finally watched ‘Oppenheimer’. Pondering again about how knowledge and discoveries and science get repeatedly abused by those who end up using it, resulting in a worsening dystopian world that we relentlessly keep moving towards. What will happen to our children? It is one thing for the circle of universe to wipe out ice ages and…
The inequality of equality
Another one of my musings. It seems that medicine is the only profession where any hierarchy is actively frowned upon. As an example – In order to not hurt sentiments of others and ‘empower’ everyone ‘equally’ doctors become providers, endocrinologists is changed to endocrinology, doclinks are renamed carelink… as if referring to a doctor as…
Perfect
On a perfectly ordinary evening as I sat mundanely in my backyard, I saw this beautiful moonrise over the roofs of houses and tree tops. The picture I took above doesn’t do it justice. The thoughts that sprang to my mind are woven together most amateurishly – but here they are – ‘imperfectly perfect?’ :)…
In Appreciation – Top Gun: Maverick
I was never a fan of Top Gun, or for that matter Tom Cruise back in the 80s. Even though I grew up in that prime time, somehow I missed that ride myself. Not to say I disliked either, but I never really felt immersed in the craze around any of it. On that background,…
Being Human
I am a physician. We are always taught to see our patients as more than their state of illness or diagnosis. ‘Speak to the patient’, ‘listen’, ‘look them in the eye’, ‘do not put one foot out the door’… the list of do’s and don’ts… while self explanatory… is long. A good doctor is considered…
A wish…
I remember being born on a bright sunny day, with the scent of flowers all around me. Cared for by the gentlest hands, I would dream of a day when all this tweaking and tending would come to fruition and I would be a sight to behold… more beautiful than I had ever been in…
Of ages and eras …
Lata Mangeshkar has passed away. Even in the hour that I first heard about this my thoughts have gone from sadness to so many more feelings … I now realize how the old truly becomes old. It’s not because it ages, it’s because everything that was around it is gone … this is how an…
Bookends
Another year comes to an end. And another moment arrives where I marvel at the human spirit with its endless capacity for optimism. Last year this time I was filled with a sense of euphoria, and a strange relief with the arrival of Covid 19 vaccines. I looked forward to 2021 being the year where…
Silence of the dawn…
Cold crisp air with that special scent which only early morning has. Fog, swirling in and out of the trees, rolling on my two way street. Street lamps like globes of soft suns blinking through the mist. My car, gliding quietly as I drink in the sights I park it. Text something. And look up…
Darkness… and light…
If 2020 was the year of a war, 2021 is very much proving to be the year of its long aftermath that has no end – a battle that drags on, with weary soldiers, angry citizens and ongoing losses of life. Every conversation, every decision, is drenched in the consciousness of this lingering threat that…
Violence against doctors…
Another day… another news… and it sadly goes on… For some years past, assaults on doctors have become commonplace in India and some other countries, and it seems, perfectly acceptable to execute. Worse, they are easily forgotten by authorities after a news splash, and even worse, the voices of protest by the assaulted are deemed…
A tree in a storm
A tree with rich, lush, green leaves stands in front of my house. Its slender branches spread as if to embrace everything around it, supporting dainty yellow flowers at their ends in token thanks for whatever those branches are allowed to hold close. Lately though the tree had had a very hard time. The untimely…
Holi
What does it even mean to me now? Yes yes, I know the legend of Prahlad and Holika, and I know about the wheat harvest and I know about kachoris and gujhia and thandai and kanji, and the giddy fun and a flirtatious flavor that only holi can bring … but sitting in this cold…
Hero Ribosome
Once upon a time there was a ribosome. He loved to read, and he loved to make puzzles even more! Big fat glasses sat on his nose, and the nose itself lay buried in mounds of reading and puzzles all day long. Sometimes mr ribosome read and built his puzzles that he called ‘proteins’ so…
Full circle
I remember the moment…March 10, 2020 …an announcement about school closures in Ohio as I worked a supposedly routine day in the clinic seeing patients…and just like that a news item about a spreading virus, a valiant ophthalmologist in China, a sickness struck cruise ship, and a contagion in Europe, turned into my immediate reality…
Pluto’s Journey
Once upon a time there was a yellow star named Sun. He had nine planets in his family – Mercury, Venus, Earth , Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. They all lived together – the planets sang and revolved around the sun as Mr. Sun glowed with happiness and contentment. One day (…or night?)…
A name… and a home…
Once upon a time there was a little heavenly body with no name. This poor heavenly body drifted in the universe all alone, sad and orbitless with only its moon to give company. Some other giant heavenly body had once shouted that its name was supposed to be a featureless OrbNam6267 for ‘counting purposes’ and…
That smile…
Her voice was hoarse. Her arm swathed in a bandage. She herself in a wheelchair that I had never had to see her in. But, it was her – with a huge smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes, with an aura of determination as her dear family stood holding guard. Death…
No limits…
It was the weekend…time to enjoy something other than work. I sat in my favorite chair googling, dreaming and typing away my latest radio script. The sun peeped out from the clouds every now and then making everything seem just that much more cheerful. The TV was on… the anchors droned away non-stop about SpaceX…
A ‘Final’ Diagnosis
Sherlock – created by a physician, based on a physician’s methods of observation and deduction, and presented to the world by his flat mate and friend…incidentally, also a physician! I cant help but notice numerous parallels between physicians and this man over and over again, and then I marvel at the fact that the man…
Atlas
A door to an office closed A sign went down No one seemed to notice No one even frowned A simple letter, the barest news ‘Tis only a ‘provider’, easy to replace Clients can choose after all It’s just another marketplace Insurance is ‘for’ the patients Only for them They never block anything…
Saving lives
We as physicians often struggle with failure. We struggle with its definition, its implications, its relevance. And most of all we struggle at times with the isolation of not many being able to comprehend our sense of failure from our perspective. What is failure to us? And why do I say it is strangely isolating…
A new start
I am going to publish a post today. It is probably going to be imperfect, on an imperfect web-log page. But as I evolve, so will this page, and so will the readership. Why am I writing so publicly? I think I am doing that to lend a degree of discipline and responsibility to my…
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