medical moments 3--radiology

                                                                  Always when you look back you will realise the true importance of things . As i have blogged earlier radiology is quite different from the typical doctor . So many differences starting with the cumpulsory airconditioned environment (its for our costly machines not for us :) )  , the distance from the disease , etc etc . But frankly compared to a "typical " doctor the experiences are less . The average radiologist who is more technically inclined and interested in more fixed hours is less bothered by it but it remains a truth .

But still though daily used to be a tailor measuring fetuses and checking their growth in antenatal ultrasound and checking whether the follicles are growing in women treated for infertility i still remember the day when i scanned the patient ten years back .  She came for "infertility  "   .. No children . The social implications , the cost of treatment and the varying results of infertility is known but it was one of my most satisfying scans .
Inside the uterus there was a white structure . Easy to diagnose but the implications were terrific .  It was an intrauterine contraceptive device .  Put many years back all had forgotten about it including the patient and many years back she had come for infertility . Probably she would have conceived and her children would be running around now  ...

Head injuries are common and CT scans especially of the head is the bread and butter of the radiologist . From the "coconut falling on head "  to head on head collisions CT is a highly accurate modality for diagnosing head injury  . And even for a fresh tutor who has joined in a busy teaching hospital head injury is easy to diagnose . But my first case was a kick in the abdomen . Though for an experienced radiologist abdominal injury is easy for a fresher especially when i found one kidney missing things were not easy  ...
(this was before the kidney scam era when any missing kidney was attributed to surgical removal )  ..
I still cant figure out how the person managed to kick the only kidney the patient had albeit whose only kidney was having a fusion abnormality from birth  .   Anyway "my first patient " though his abnormally fused kidney had an injury recovered completely though the grading  of injury  as well as the fused kidney status revealed by CT scan significantly altered the treatment  ..

Doing carotid doppler on one of my favourite singers as well as seeing the maskara artifact in MRI of popular film actress i would say the bonus of the profession .  And yes both studies were normal (but cant reveal their identities :))

hobby biography reading

I dont bungee jump .. frankly i am scared  ..But i have tried a range of hobbies from aeromodelling to salsa dancing and found most of them quite enjoyable . And one hobby which stands out is biography reading of famous people . And not only their achievements , the reading helps to understand what motivated them , their private life (in that sense i am vouyeristic :)  )  , what was like in the soceity at that time etc  ..

I am not a connoisseur of classical music generally  but am fond of two pieces of music of Mozart and Beethoven . And that is more than reason enough to wikipedia them both and in half an hour knew more about them which is inspiring in so many ways  .  The sequential progression of Beethovens deafness and still he composed music and retained his humour . Also his love life which was always with the nobility and failed due to class difference couldnt help me think . The music he made didnt have any caste or religion but his love wasnt allowed due to class .  ( this was 200 years back )  .

Coming back to my hobby i also referred wikipedia about two heroes of my childhood amar chitra katha . Raja Ram mohan Roy and Dayananand Saraswathi (refer wikipedia )  . We all know the former as he stopped the practice of women jumping into husbands funeral pyre .(which we now know totally illogical ) . But reading through the practices which he were against brought a chill along my spine . And reading Dayananand Saraswathi and his great social reform (both 200 + years back )  brought another chill .
Written in black and white were so many social evils which they were against at that time (two centuries ago )  with clearcut reasons .

Why these have relevance to me is two fold . ? Each great persons life teaches me something new about the human spirit  and i find more similarities than differences in their great lives  . Their philanthropism , their logical thinking , their lack of hypocrisy etc  .  And thanks to internet its so easy these days to read about them by just two clicks  ..

But more reading also has a sideeffect  ... its not 10 or 20 years has passed but close to 200 + years ... We have communication methods which will make people like Ram mohan Roy get shocked , medical treatments which make Beethoven stop his composition ( at his era tuberculosis etc were deadly )  . But culturally have we progressed or regressed . Read wikipedia on Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Dayanand Saraswathi and objectively tell me the answer .   

medical moments 2--- surgery

                                                                    Studying in a major government teaching hospital during MBBS is good in many ways and bad in many ways how you look at it  .. For example my visiting relative found a running rat in the department while i didnt "notice " it  because i was engrossed in other things .   But other than learning how to treat (not rats of course:)   )  this living lab gives you the experiences which makes you realise what "being human " is all about  ..

Being a studious student and hardly bunked classes there was one place i used to bunk as much as reasonably possible . That was the operation theatre .  As  often was feasible i used to put on the surgical gown and then spend a half an hour seeing some surgery then bunking into the coffee shop inside the theatre . For one thing watching something without a commentary and that too competing with a large group peering into an incision of 4x 5 cm is not my idea of learning  . And i had decided anyway that i am not interested in becoming a surgeon .  Inspite of my great respect of surgeons , i was very clear that i am more interested in non surgical things  .

But inspite of this i was filled with awe seeing the heart lying still in the cardiothoracic surgery theatre . The organ which beats from the moment even before you are born to the moment you die whoever you are (in that humans are similar )  was seen in a bloodless field still while surgeons were repairing it .  The hearts function meanwhile was taken up by the heart lung machine .  And it was nice to watch the team coordination in making this medical miracle happen .

Next stop was the neurosurgery theatre .  Again silent ...except for the constant bleeps . Being the most complex organ and if any smallest mistake is irreparable the surgery takes 8-12 hrs slowly  . But for me that slowness and their patience filled me with awe at the great work they do  .  But again it was very clear it was not for me because my strengths lay at different things ( not coffee drinking of course )  .  Even with major radiological advances which can even see the tracts near the tumor in colour neurosurgery is still a highly complicated surgery because the room for error is not there because we still dont know how to repair neurons .

Inspite of all the bunking i was favorite of one of the general surgeons and he gave me the opportunity to tie the purse string suture of appendicitis repair  . My hands were steady and having done many sutures for patients in surgical casualty (for common injuries )  under his guidance i did that suture for appendicitis  .  That was my first and last suture in a major surgery.  (that was a successful surgery  ....)

I admire  good surgeons . And its clear that some people are cut out for it .And since there are 20 + specialties in the profession and the long years to be put in establishing in a surgical career only those who like it should go for it  ..(this applies to anything ).

A good surgeon has an eagle’s eye, a lion’s heart, and a lady’s hand

I have a leopards heart :)

why i wont buy a bmw

Recently had an opportunity to travel on the road in kerala literally almost the length of kerala .  I love road travel because not only the changing landscape is very palpable which you never get the feel in rail or air travel .  I enjoyed the travel thanks to the company of two people i like very much my cousin and his dad .  And of course travelling in a high end SUV was quite comfortable .  Part of the journey was done in a small hatchback .

Its said all blogs should start in an optimistic note but when the road is filled with gutters (its a highway ) and though its my uncles cars suspension at stake i looked at the beautiful coconut tree laden landscape to be filled with optimism  .  But in between i couldnt help but look at the roads and wonder how inspite of being the most literate state and quarrelling for the silliest reasons with each other  kerala has one of the worst roads in india  . Its a paradox because countless amounts of media space and waking hour discussions is spend on this "road " topic but still roads are as bad as 10 years back . This would have been ok but at least two of our favorite filmstars had their lives ended in tragedy not because of "accident " but poor road state  .  And these are the same roads through which most malayalis kin drive to reach their loved ones and also when they drive to the nearest hospital in an emergency  .  Sorry ,  i wanted to be optimistic  ...

Anyway after a brief shopping spree at kochi we travelled through a wonderful stretch of road to trichur one of the few well maintained roads in kerala . Having used to roads in other states even the highways in mumbai city i loved this stretch . What used to take double the time previously has been cut in half by this nice stretch of road . Further north the roads were not as tragic as the south of kochi stretch but head on collisions was always a possibility as though a highway overtaking was always a risk due to the narrowness and poor road manners .  The saving grace was the changing landscapes each area showing the local culture with trichur , calicut , mahe , thalassery and kannur enroute  ..The high end SUV trimmed out the uneven stretches of the road and in kerala the big size and formidableness of the SUV helped to some extent in getting some clearing in the road chaos .

The return trip at night through thin traffic was much better . Here too my uncle was wondering why tolls were being collected at numerous points especially when roads were horrible just metres from the toll booth .  In kerala where people are more interested in what an undertrial eats in central jail (solar scam : sarita , shalu menon etc filling the news for the third week now )  i told my uncle please relax this is Gods own country  .......In heaven there are no roads  ....And yes .. i wont buy a BMW here because a BMW is not a boat  :)

PS : Next time anyone of the people we know dies in an accident due to poor road conditions it would be good if a public interest litigation is filed in high court  .  Because even in Bihar (yes they are "supposed" to be less literate  )  they were thinking of sueing their chief minister for pesticide tragedy of kids  ...(vicarious liability  )  .

First blood movie review

Having seen both First blood and terminator series i like the former better because i feel it has got a better storyline and more realistic .
A dialogue from the first blood movie  : "
;Rambo :  I could have killed 'em all, I could've killed you. In town you're the law, out here it's me. Don't push it! Don't push it or I'll give you a war you won't believe. Let it go. Let it go!

It amazes me the movie buff i am misses so many things in movies and i have to see it many times to get the full message .  As an action movie buff i always liked the movie first blood where the character Rambo played by sylvester stallone fights singlehandedly against an entire section of armed men . The guerilla warfare and the techniques employed are simply superb .  Even the fighting technique where he uses sharpened sticks to severely injure armed men and improvising traps etc is too good . And the M60 machine gun is one of the few machine guns which can be hand carried and fired at 600 rounds per minute

;It is only in second round of movie watching that i understand stallones dialogues especially since he is known to swallow half his dialogues with his style of speech  ..For an action movie the dialogue delivery is good , forceful and tells why he did what he does in the movie

Though we see all this in the first view actually the movie is about PTSD or Post traumatic stress disorder  . (wikipedia )  .. As he himself puts it  towards the end the entire action sequence was because as a returning war veteran he couldnt adjust to civilian life  and in addition to that the innocent civilians triggered him by a wrongful arrest and a little torture in police custody ;Towards the end he summarises why he went into the carnage which blew up half the town . In the  words of Rambo  "Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and know what the hell they're yelling about!"   Those who have read about the problems of returning vietnam war veterans will know what he means though Rambo is a fictional character  .

And lastly seeing First blood i cannot help but think whether campus shootings in united states which occur every year with a regularity has something to do with bullying on the campus  .Just like Rambo was a troubled man who was pushed too much , many of the campus shooters were bullied before they went into a killing spree .  I have blogged on this before .. But as Rambo says in the movie : Sir , it was not I but they who drew the first blood ..

My rating for this movie is Must watch ..

Malala , Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh

                                                         I was a kid then . I saw Gandhi film and still remember like yesterday the scene  when he is pushed out from the first class compartment of the train where he stares at the oppressor in that initial scene . Lets be honest most of us would have just brushed our coat and would have walked home with bruised mind . Because the enemy against this man was not one person but a mighty nation where sun never sets .But he never gave up and the end result is the free india

Years passed by and though his methods was different an angry young man in punjab also revolted against this tyrannical rule with a handful of his friends . He too was not fearful in taking on an enemy the size of which was unfathomable . He was Bhagat singh and if you think you know him really well read wikipedia and google really well . He was a real " man " in every sense even in the days before he was hanged .  He was 23 only  .

And in this day and age where we are cosmopolitan and where none of us have fear ( i am sarcastic here ) many social evils prevail . Oppressors have changed their form and colour , These days we know clearly what is oppression and how it can be tackled . Because the greatest thing which sustains oppression is not the handful of oppressors but the "silent " majority who minds their business .  It is in these circumstances people like Malala have a bigger question mark in front of the people .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/12/malala-idol-un-speech-pupils

Shes only 16 years and  a girl  . And that tells a lot .  At that tender age and being a girl ( i am being sexist here )  she has dared to stand up for her rights . And the question comes where is all the mature men and women of her country ? What are they doing ?  And her speech "after "  her injuries show the undying spirit that just like "hope " the " fighting against odds " is an inherent human trait . Only thing is its ingrained in a few and as the " silent " majority at least lets support them .

Whenever we say big words (me included ) against corruption , against crimes against women ,religious fundamentalism etc etc lets ask ourselves how silent we are and whether we can do something about it .. Think about it  ...

Side effect

These days in kerala (  no exaggeration at all ) if you see a long queue it is 99 percent chance that it is in front of a liquor shop  .  Probably the literacy rate and alcohol consumption are related .

But when i was studying for MBBS once there was a long queue in trivandrum . As a budding medical student many of the educated laymen even asked me opinion on the new treatment . The new treatment was for an age old problem called baldness . Apparently a person has discovered a new medicine for baldness in alternate system of medicine , word of mouth has publicised it and there were daily queues to get it .The person who discovered it got rich fast at the expense of educated malayalis who usually argue and counterargue everything on earth especially medicines.  That incident was forgotten but whenever i see the androgenic alopecia (baldness male pattern ) in many i cant but laugh inside at the long queues and the vehement arguments including against this poor me when i talked against this miracle cure .  I am not against alternate systems but fights should be fair and when modern medicines are subjected to extensive trials ( refer wikipedia ) and still have problems its surprising how alternate system medicines are gulped without any forethought just because they are marketed even better .  I think i blogged about the cancer patient who ate the ash and then died and also about the person who got liver failure taking alternate medicine with heavy metals  .

Sorry to be off topic  .  But the point is as a doctor i find it funny when even very intelligent and educated people speak about sideeffects of modern medicines . Its a known fact that modern medicines do have side effects .  But as in life for a large gain you always have to compromise on small things side effects are a realistic part of treatment . And the knowledgeable patient neither underestimates or overestimates it .
How many of us (including  me ) had fever ? How many of you had paracetamol for fever ?  What side effect you got with it  ? I till this moment got none . But  if you read the possible side effects of paracetamol the list goes in hundreds including death due to many causes . http://www.drugs.com/sfx/paracetamol-side-effects.html    . The fact remains that most side effects are rare .

On the other extreme are chemotherapy cancer drugs some of which eg: methotrexate gives near 100 percent cure for certain cancers . But there side effects are more common and severe but still the benefit outweighs the risk and since there is no choice the intelligent person takes an informed decision and choice .
The saddest part of my MBBS experience is when early cancer patients skip the treatment fearing the "side effects" go to alternate systems and come back in stage 4 disease ( the final stage ).

Allergic reaction to pencillin can kill . Its a rare but known risk . But the lakhs of people saved in world war 2 was due to the newer antibiotic while in previous wars lakhs due to die not due to war but due to infection .  I dont think the " sideeffect " of pencillin and the "negligence " was a major issue in world war era . But even Alexander Fleming will have second thoughts why he didnt throw away that petri dish when  the wonderful medicine he discovered and scores of others are seen with suspicion in modern times ..Is it that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing .. I dont  know .  

facebook quotations

I love facebook . Heard its an addiction but i dont care .  Its better than alcoholism , drug abuse etc etc as long as its not extreme .  And one aspect i like about it is the quotations which are shared by my friends and even my enemies ( joking ) ..

Each quotation is a discussion by itself but  as latest as today two random quotes are interesting

Though its told like a joke i have heard increasingly many people thinking in these lines .  And actually except for your parents (if they are supporting you )or your employer  very few people have the right to pass an opinion on you  . Have you ever thought why you put up with it  ?  The main reason i feel is most victims are civil and do not want to be defensive  or angry when someone passes an opinion about your life . But since its impractical for judgemental people to pay your bills the best solution is either firmly telling that its none of their business or ignoring them in mid sentence .  Try it  .  In my case my bills are pretty heavy and its unfair on my part to expect some people to pay it  :)  

 

In my school days i would have laughed at this quote as like a racing car i was competing with my peers.  In a way that helped me reach where i am now  "faster " .  But in later years i realised healthy competition is always good but more importantly its important to compete with yourself  .  Just today read the article on the paraplegic who is doing things including international first in many things which even i havent done .  Its true a paraplegic can never run like me . So she can never compete with me . But if she focussed on competing with others she can never be happy nor achieve great things . But she competed with herself and with her handicap she has won international medals in so many events including a modified biking event  ... So lets compete against ourselves and happy weekend  ..

Medical moments

                                                     I was always fascinated by medical science .. I still am  ..  And more than the diseases , the remarkable human body which fights it and the treatments i am also thankful for the many experiences which it gave me in broadening my perspectives . For there are few professions where you see life in its raw form , the real truth from which most of us try to hide in our day to day life  ..

The lady in her thirties breathless and propped up fighting for her life . I still remember her though i have seen many other breathless people due to a variety of causes . What was unique in her was she was fighting for her life with a heart disease and which was complicated by pregnancy . That particular woman had been advised against pregnancy because of the advanced stage of heart disease and the type of heart disease she had .It was a personal decision against medical advice . In one way foolhardy but the hope of having a baby on one hand and fighting the disease on other hand got the better of her .  She was lucky to be alive to a large part due to the life saving treatment but whenever i think about any " fight or challenge " in life  i think about her ..At that moment i saw her fighting the disease for her baby .

"Life "  is a miracle  and its lucky indeed to have it inspite of its many joys and sorrows .  We must have been 20  both  of us  .  As a part of overenthusiastic third year MBBS we voluntarily spend our days in casualty admission days to see how in real world emergencies patients are treated .  On that particular day early morning ( early mornings is change over time and surprisingly very few casualties too )  .  I was sitting alone in the medical casualty ( duty house officers were in duty room nearby )  .  I dont know why the attenders wheeled in that boy into the medical casualty  as they clearly told it was a bus accident  . Being very senior attenders they saw my perplexed look and told that it was already seen ...brought dead and will soon be taken off to autopsy  .  I looked at him  .  Similar age as mine . No blood nothing  .. Just looks like sleeping  ....I wasnt afraid but of course i was uncomfortable because in that room both of us were there for around 20 minutes  . But thinking back paradoxically these incidents helped me be more thankful for life and appreciate life more . After that i achieved so many things in so many avenues . Met so many people , learnt about life in so many aspects but he missed all of it at the threshold of youth  .

She was a white lady .. I dont know her country of origin  . But she used to walk in the middle of the ward a few times in her own world shouting and assuming that one of the interns was her boyfriend .  Paranoid delusion as part of some psychiatric illness . Thats the medical aspect of it . But more importantly she was a woman thousands of kilometres from her homeland totally out not able to even think clearly . She could be a prominent person in her country , could have been even a successful person before but at that point in time she was the embodiment of helplessness .  And seeing her i dont become helpless but i learnt the lesson of humility thinking whoever we are we are nothing if just a few things get out of control .

All these patients are faar back  ... during my MBBS days  ... But not immediately then after seeing life i slowly learnt that life as well as MBBS was teaching me the same thing ... Be humble , value life and fight challenges .  And as a sideeffect (because its medicine )  i  started hating pride and materialism whenever i see it  ..

commando war stories in pictures

When i think back to my childhood and teenage years i remember the beautiful books i used to read including the entire phantom series , tarzan of the apes , amar chitra katha and commando series . All were great reads and not only the entertainment value subconsciously they were inculcating a " value system " on the young minds . These real or imagined  heroes (phantom , tarzan )or heroines (Razia sultana of Amar chitra katha and Rani of Jhansi )  were courageous and were principled . And being a guy and interested in arms and ammunition it was but natural that i had as much interest in war comics . Even though geared for the guys mainly with all the machine gun fire and spitfire aircraft wiping out the entire airfield there was a value system there too and imagination at work

I remember the war story where a guy who was a civilian who used to do petty crime . He had dinner one day at a senior citizens house and he overheard while leaving the daughter of the senior citizen asking her father why people like the petty thief are living happily in this earth while virtuous people like her cousin die in action ( it was world war 2 time ) .  That made him think and he trained and joined the army and fought for his country and later married her .

Then there was the story were a haunted house was there where there was sound of merry making every year on a certain day . Apparently a group of soldiers called the Bakers dozen who were known for their camaderie used to guard the village long time back during world war  . And once they valiantly fought against the invaders inspite of the lack of reinforcements and finally they died in an air -raid . It was thrilling to read when both the villagers , the reader as well as the ghosts (the dead soldiers ) kept in suspense by the writers of this picture comic in the last page when they ask each other " Then what happened ?" .  And the leader of the group Mr baker explained that the reinforcements never came and they were ghosts .And after that realisation the haunting stopped forever .

Unlike in other professions teamwork is vital in military . In " A man afraid "  one person had difficulty pulling trigger in certain circumstances due to PTSD . ( a past military mental trauma ) . And soon enough there came a time when his handicap and fear came in the way of saving the life of his comrades under enemy fire . How the issue is sensitively handled by this battle hardened "men " is the theme of that story  ..

Thinking back now on those comic series as a blogger now i cant but be filled in awe at the imagination as well as the messages they conveyed be it comaderie , friendship ,duty ,courage etc. And yes the spitfires and mausser pistols were enjoyable but amidst the gunfire each story was entertaining beyond compare.)They are still in  production since 1961.)

Not proud to be a malayali man

I am proud about so many things . And even though i adore women (in a good sense ) i am proud of being a man too .. But i am not proud to be a" malayali" man .  Not because of the corruption charges and the sex scandals filling the malayalam channels frequently (or rather exclusively ) these days  .  But because as recent as the latest "solar corruption charge " the focus have moved from the involvement of the chief accused to the serial tv artiste .  . But more disturbingly it was showing the private life of the  actress and it was being shown almost like a comic strip with no relevance to the case .I was thinking out loudly how the private life of a person could be so mockingly put in media and that too when the case is in trial .I could conclude only that the typical malayali man has a voyueristic interest in the private life of a pretty woman or maybe his insecurity is stimulated seeing a woman having control over her private life .

This is not a unique incident . As recently as a few months back a prominent tv anchor had a verbal fight with  a malayali man in an airport .  Maybe his male ego got hurt  but what was shocking was not the details of the fight . Facebook was showing picture of her in  a club hugging a man and that too with the  comment "prostitute "  .  Being the most literate state (God alone knows in what )  it was thought provoking what hugging a man in a club in a dance has to do with an airport verbal fight and that too prostitution .  Kerala is known for its matriarchal heritage and seemingly better status of women  .

As they say in the movies if  malayali men are so courageous let them not fight women . And if we have no role models in the older age group  in real life  at least find role models in malayalam movies especially Mammootty .. Have seen him protecting women only ...

Can i get a transfer to a better place where they are less vouyeristic and nosy .. I forgot this is Gods own country ..

the fear factor

                                                             There was a time in life i used to run away from hospitals . Not literally , i still remember i ran out of the hospital fearing a tetanus toxoid injection with my parents and the nurse in pursuit . I was really scared of the needles and the syringes and the pain they entitled . I was maybe 7  years old then .  Many years later i still remember as  a postgraduate doctor once i injected myself the teatnus toxoid injection into the muscle struggling with one hand to balance the syringe . By then not because i was a doctor the "fear " of needles disappeared and was replaced by the realistic expectation that an injection will only entitle a "finite " amount of pain . Not the catastrophe that i thought it was ..

Being a radiologist helped of course but to tell the truth it is scary to go inside an MRI scanner . Because it really feels like going inside a burial casket with the machine around you . And many years back when the bore of magnet was smaller upto 10 percent of studies were terminated due to claustrophobia  ..These days with distracting teachniques like music things are definitely better  . But for me for curiosity had been inside the scanner and without the music distraction . Of course the overwhelming fear comes for a second but the moment the loud noises when the magnets get switched on i think about the amazing technology behind these  miracle machines . Then the " fear " turns to awe and the entire scan of twenty minutes passes by without any claustrophobia .

Having swam in the kovalam beach frequently the waves are always a thrill . But the feeling of getting swept by a wave especially when it breaks on you is not at all a pleasant feeling and is even fear provoking .  But inspite of the scary feeling knowing how not to fight it but gently ride on it helps a lot with the fear and panic .In short knowledge often helps in conquering fear  .

How do you handle a mother in law whom you dont like who is going to stay with you for a month  especially when she visits you when you have just given birth and helpless .  As a guy i dont have any suggestions for this" fear "  .  There too i knew like all fears most of them dont materialise .  And i told her 90 percent of fears including mother in laws dont materialise because lot of things can happen in between ...

And yes like most fears that too didnt materialise when the time came . Isnt it time we  started  not fearing fear ...

the crocodile in the well

                                                               Because this is about a friend of mine i have renamed this as crocodile in the well because i meant frog in the well  . Having known him for so many years he wont mind even if i call him ( i often do :)  )  the frog in the well . Mr X has hardly ever travelled outside trivandrum . And as if that itself is not a crime he vehemently argues that it is the best place to live so there is no point in travelling outside trivandrum or worse still for staying for extended periods outside trivandrum . Long ago though i used to argue with him a part of me used to agree that familiarity is always welcome and that too living in the beautiful city of trivandrum . Recently after many many years we again talked about the same topic but this time we both agreed that we both liked trivandrum the best ..But over the years of my innumerable travels outside trivandrum there was a big difference between both of us . I had arabian food with arabian music with an arab , spoken in broken hindi to punjabis , travelled at 200 kmph in the autobahn and shivered in shanghai . It was not these experiences that made the difference but the great realisation that there is a big world outside trivandrum and also in having a cosmopolitan outlook in so many things . And to top it up a blog based on the people seen .. No wonder this time i didnt argue with the crocodile but smiled .....

P.S : Dont blackmail me by showing this blog to my friend if at all you get any clue because i will show this to him though he is averse to reading blogs ..

                                                           During one of my trips during my student days being a foodie i am i had trouble convincing my group to try some exotic food . Apparently as many of my keralite friends can vouch for a malayali searches for kerala food first and last when he is outside kerala . This is understandable when you stay foir extended periods in a foreign land but in short trips we should make first priority to try the local cuisine unless its grossly unpalatable .  Of course times have changed these days with globalisation ( i was born before the globalisation era )  but still tasting the local food and meeting the locals should be priority number one when you step out of your place .

PS : I have tried upto sushi and arabian style baked fish but still havent had the snake or the worm . Probably because they didnt cross my path

                                               So even in this globalisation era dear crocodiles ( i still believe there are a few  at least in attitude) come out .. And then go  back to the well  ... Because unlike in food and meeting people a cosmopolitan attitude goes a long way in curing many of the ills of present day world  ...

Readers digest and Shania Twain

                                                      Long ago i still remember that night .  I was busy soldering the large speaker with the amplifier and checking the music . I still remember the way the speaker jumped as i was still testing it .. (Ultimately  i  put it in a makeshift vessel the hobbyists way  )  ... It was followed by the sharp and melodious voice of a lady who became world famous with her songs of the country music genre .  Sold more than 20 million albums and her name is Shania Twain ...

Years passed by . I forgot about Shania Twain as i was busy with career , new hobbies , new musicians ..
But yesterday i got the current edition of Readers digest and lo  there she was one of my favourite artists .
Though older by 10 + years she looks as beautiful as ever and as i glanced through the pages i saw she  got married had a kid and settled in Switzerland  .  As an amateur celebrity historian (thats me  )  i was happy for her because selling 20 million albums and settling in Switzerland with a nice family is the ultimate dream . But something was amiss  ... Her best friend with whom she shared everything including her suspicion that her husband was having an affair  betrayed her trust  .  She whom she confided in was the one with whom her husband was having the affair  ...  But maybe the collective goodwill of fans like me she rebuilt her life from rock bottom and got remarried .

Then there was this article on Christian the lion who was brought up in an apartment by two people and the bonding which developed between this big cat and humans . It has one of the maximum youtube hits and many people know about it but nice to read it .

Then there was an article on when your child is a homosexual  .  With a prevalence of 1-2 percent homosexuality and bisexuality is a fact of life .  And when your child prefers the same sex relationship it is shocking to most parents especially in a homophobic soceity . Many of them get married too and of course with disastrous results often covered up .

I often think whether in the "good old days " Readers digest were better . They were good in the good old days ( i have read the back editions of many ) but inspite of commercialisation for its current day relevant and interesting content Readers digest is still good ..

On tachymeters and DSLR cameras---buy what you need

                                                  CT technician:   Sir , can you tell me how your watch works ?
Me :  sheepish grin .. Next time .. Honestly i dont know now ..

Having just completed a training program teaching him about an equipment costing crores he must be thinking why this person doesnt know how his watch works .  But its still the truth . Even now i dont know how to use the tachymeter in my watch after 4 years and rather not interested because i dont find the function useful in my day to day life .

I have seen innumerable people with a DSLR camera with them . But honestly barring a few how many of them use it to its optimum . Or at least half its optimum  .  And since even an entry level DSLR costs at least 4 times the cost of a point and shoot digital camera is it a value for money buy ?  Unless you are really interested in photography a DSLR is a status symbol . It is apparently to show the general public that you can afford a high end camera and also to make them believe that you are a great photographer . But more often than not when quality of images taken by it are worser than the point and shoot cameras it tells more about the "photographer " than the camera .This is not about the select few who are very good in photography and in their hands a DSLR works wonders .

Be it a "convection microwave with grill "  , iphone 5 , alienware laptop all these things get their full meaning only when they are fully utilised and that too by the person who deserves it .

Generally preferring beautiful things :)  when choosing a laptop long back i had only one main specification : that it should be rugged as i was very rough back then ... People used to ask me why i didnt buy the beautiful viao or at least a high end sleek toshiba  back then .  I was always happy with my black IBM thinkpad as it was still working after falling upside down from the bed and falling from a metre high during a 3 km walk on a hartal day .
                                                                    I am not perfect like in the tachymeter incident but i wish if more of us were to value the value for money factor in everything wouldnt it be a case where we have more money for the things we really need ....
                                                 
       

caste system and religion

                                                                 Was reading "Charlis and I " by Shashi Tharoor yesterday in which he has beautifully described the caste system and the effects of untouchability when he was a child where the lower caste boy Charlis was not even allowed to play with the upper caste boys . Over the years it showed the land reforms , the empowerment of lower castes and ultimately the lower caste boy getting admission to his high caste home when the Charlis gets IAS . In my childhood there was no untouchability. And as i grew older i realised though the caste system faded it started rearing an ugly head in another way . People who dont understand their roots or even how the caste system came into being unifying under a political banner based on caste . It didnt matter high caste or low caste what mattered was a party in its name and doing the same things all the political parties do but with a caste banner .

I say religion is personal not without reason . For one that is a connection between a person and God if he believes in it  .  But more importantly most of my observations on organised religion when i look around shows the negativity associated with it and only serves to show hypocrisy as well as dividing people .

As late as last month i saw a souvenier magazine in which all the people who have gone together for a holy pilgrimage was given with their colour photo and all details . As part of the package deal of a few lakhs the pilgrimage covered the souvenier also . Nothing wrong in that  .  But what i was not prepared for was a prominent smuggler  as well as a hospital owner with his wife smiling happily in one of the pages . Apparently he does the pilgrimage frequently .  If you say he might be doing the pilgrimage for salvation , maybe , but using which money because to the best of my knowledge the hospital is under huge loss for many years and is a coverup for his black money  .

Coming from a secular family during my study in school also i was surprised when some of my friends acted "hyper-religious "  . Apparently they were thrilled and actively were engaged in martial arts training under a religious banner which is banned now and at their age they only saw the martial arts part . And some of the friendly ones told me they were learning it to fight the people of my religion . In retrospective thinking i am thinking how their innocent minds were corrupted by the elders who saw religion only to divide .  And paradoxically thanks to amar chitra katha i used to know much more than even their parents about that religion .

Being secular i should include even the third religion which is considered relatively less volatile.  But that surprise came the most shocking . Every year the school used to give prizes for the state rank holders . But that particular year unfortunately all the calculations by the school failed . The student who used to be first in all the internal assessments and who belonged to the same religion as the school management in the public exam didnt get state rank . And two people got state rank both from other religions .  While even the government felicitated these students but the school authorities that year didnt give any prizes . Coming from a secular family my parents saw no point in sermonising the school authorities that knowledge comes from the same God . And talking about sermonising the school was run by "religious" people .

Maybe the effect of ageing but nowadays i have a thumb rule .. Anyone says religion very actively in their conversation that person will be a hypocrite and does things exactly opposite what he tells . And i am still searching for exceptions  ...