Delicacies for Deevali

It is the season of light, sound, and sweets.

This time it is all love and affection from cousins and their preparations, simple village delicacies made with country brown sugar, all in pictures, taste it with your eyes and let it melt in the mouth.

Birthday gathering

It was my lady's b day , and the street neighborhood kids decided to celebrate,
word was passed around and ,things that they wanted was listed by one of the bright kids.

They had decided to meet at  7 pm, finishing the tutions and home work by that time.

The wall clock did not seem to move in their homes and many had started arriving by 6 itself , asking me if it was alright to be earlier.

Things were moving with such enthusiasm that i agreed, between some plumbing work that had the water tank dry, and the plumber arriving when the electricity was shut for another two hours..

 Nothing was going to stop the celebrations the kids and i decided.

I took the few  kids who has arrived early to one of the department shops, and asked them what they wanted, each one was pointing his or her finger at bright coloured paper wrappings of the worst kind, well each one got what they wanted ,

The next stop was the chips kadai, and then the  bakery.

Then when all had gathered at my clinic next door, we all paraded  to meet the beauty of the day.

One girl presented , a bindi packet and flowers and we all sang  " happy b day  to her".

We then got the kids arranged and then shared the eatables of confectioneries and chips and other things and  they sang, yelled and  trooped to make the day a bright one for the lady .

Ohh yes she sang too.

Sprouted malt powder- with no preservatives

A parent had come bringing with her,  her child of 9 th class, after some time the discussion was what in the tinned powders that cost so much of money , tapping the keys i opened up the ingredients list of that product, and the child said , it looks like our whole chemistry lab is in there!

Well that is the combination of all the stuff that is added to the products.

A local patient is preparing  a malted powder with a blend of all the locally available cereals and pulses and sprouted what ever can be sprouted and with addition of a few spices, and no preservatives , she packs them to sell it at an affordable price.

It goes well with sea salt or with jaggery , and with innovations one could make even payasam with it.

A physician plays the role of a nurse

We physicians who only see a patient and is finished with the prescription , never get to care for a patient, and now with the illness of my lady and a fracture of the femur, am getting to care for my lady with simple things, now all moments of movements are so precious.

It is not that we are insensitive to our patients , but our concern for them is forgotten or too shallow, now playing this role , i find it has much depth, and though it is my wife, i think it would be the same if it was for any patient in general.

With this understanding and awareness, i think the role of a nurse if that of compassion courage and passion for the work, that keeps them going.

Looks like we have things to learn from them , than just giving injections and dressing wounds.

Bed side Bonfire

The winter is just starting, and the tiled roof home which can be lovely for summer, can be chilling for this season, our down temperature is not much , only around 18 degrees c at night, but our cold bearing system is that low.

All the blankets, the shawls and the cardigans , the socks and the gloves are still not sufficient for the likes of us.
At such times what comes to the open is the heater.

This was hinted by a cousin a long time back, and he says he even takes it with him at times to Tirupathy on his family trip there in the chilly months, with the kids and grand kids.

A wrong number to the right person

I have a habit of ringing up my patients , just to know how they are getting along or are they drifting away.

It was one of those evenings and i had tapped a number and waited for the voice on the other side, and when it did , it was different, i enquired if it was Murugesan, which Murugesan? it enquired, well Ellampillai i said, well this is Swami, came back the reply

Good Lord looks like i made a connection to heaven..

It was a number i have not wrung for a longgg time, but that friend has turned into a  mystic  now.

Laughter was shared like the old times,  for the present , and more things ..  for the future.

Sometimes diaries can get to  make contacts with the  right person, with the wrong lines.

Marks to book a page

I was once horrified when i noticed a reader fold the edge of the page he was reading  as a book mark.

I do not know if he would do it if it was his own collection of titles.

I would certainly not share any of my books with such page cruel readers,if i ever got to see one.

We had been to a thanks giving function of a medical representative, arranged by his two daughters working at highly professional levels of an English tutor and a chartered accountant, after all the ritualistic  talks and sharing of hearts, they passed around book marks, along with the take away gifts of sweets and a dinner.

Reading habits of our kind have certainly changed with the new age electronic pages on line.

Like all changes this is happening too, but there is nothing like the feel of a  book in the hand and its effect on our hearts and mind.