Vanakkam Doctor !

My first SNOW or my first KISS!!! Not sure, which one to talk about, however will save me some peace and space, if I blog about the snow rather than the kiss!! It’s been snowing cats and dogs here in Manchester . The weather forecast was very gloomy for some but very bright too, for a few, especially the kiddies. Well, it actually started snowing last Friday and almost continued until the Christmas day, i.e. for a week. People have already had their own shares of tales and woes; cars skiiiing dangerously; oldies taking over the local casualties with broken arms and hips. It has also been chaotic for everyone but us and kiddies in the backyard. We built an Igloo house with blocks of ice and a snowman with the bluest of the eyes available in Europe ! My first snow was actually in 1994 at the Moscow Airport , when we made that infamous trip to London , via Moscow from Delhi , on an Aeroflot plane!! The snow was actually outside our (me, Hari and Ganesh) reach as we w...

Kunnoor or Kunoor (Hari or AVS may correct me…) in Tamil Nadu reminds me of many things. The foremost stays with me symbolically on my forehead as a scar! Well, we were on a trip to Ooty, from the Medical school. The year was 1987. It was our class’s first long trip after the short, earlier dry run to Mahabalipuram. The detour from Chennai lasted 3nights and 4 days. This was during when I; smoked my first beedi, a cigarette and possibly sat very closely next to few a girls, including few other things!! Yes, our batch girls were there with us and bravest few of them yet accompanied us for the subsequent Kodai tour, however none to our final one, to KASHMIR !!! Don’t ask me why. The Ooty trip was an eventful one and livid with vivid memories still brewing in my memory cup!! Sesh trying to pull off few birds and in the process ending up as a sulking Devadoss!!! A tall beauty's escapade...

It is a full moon day again! The heavenly bliss, which God bestows upon us every month, must be, one hell of a sight, from anywhere on this planet!! From any site or location, any street or a house top terrace, it must and ought to be! However, to me, the moon (Nila) was or still possibly is at its best, especially, when it is swimming along the waves of Marina Beach, in Chennai , India , on a Full moon day (Pournami Nilavau). And what a sight it is!!! I still remember vividly, those Full moon or Pournami days, on my own or with my friends on Marina Beaches’ sands; waves after waves battling with the minutiae of glorious sand dunes, never ever getting tired of drenching them, however transient, it would be. Full moon is a sight to savour, absorb, and digest. It is simple, divine, and so pure and possibly indescribable. These are the times, when I constantly remind myself of how tiny I am in this huge ...

Deepavali!!! It is once again, that time of the year. First 10 years: Oil bath, food, crackers, fire works, kites, friends, and lots of fun Second ten years: Fire works, kites, entertainment, television, movies, food, friends, girl friends and lots of fun Third ten years: Just the odd sprinklers or rockets, friends, Old monk, beers, Whiskies, dance, looking at kites, bladdered and lots of fun Currently: Very few drinks, friends, food, dance, and kiddies having lots of fun!! My earliest memory of Deepavali goes back to, when I was possibly four or five. Appa came home that evening with a big bag full of fire works, most of which were diverted to my uncles in Kanchipuram. Well, we were very young to fire them! The next one was when Appa got himself incarcerated in Chennai central prison!T his was in 1976, following a union strike at his work place which was also the emergency period in India . We were actually...

Nissan Bluebird Nissan Bluebird was my first car and obviously, we were over the moon, I mean, I, and the car, when it was bought. The reg no was: F551 PVL. The white bluebird car was bought in September 1995, in Scunthorpe , which was my then abode in UK . I was then a Senior House Officer in the Scunthorpe hospital, my first proper job as a UK Doc. I had already passed my driving test by then and a matter of fact, possibly the only exam; I had passed in the first attempt in UK , apart from my Citizenship test, done very recently!! The car was bought for £2700, had already clocked 77,000 miles on it, which was Amazing! This was almost around 1, 30,000 km and I would be very desperate to know whether cars in India would be still alive and sold from a garage, with a three months warranty, after having clocked that many miles! The fateful event, catapulting me to buy a car, was an evening stroll along the Chennai marina beach ...

It was my first time and a new experience indeed!! Well, I was in Year II in Stanley Medical College and the year was 1987. It was the summer of 1987 and I was already gelling up with a friendly Shakeel from Pattukottai, amongst few others. Not sure, why, but this humblest of the guys from a distant Pattukottai, near temple town of Tanjavoor, schooled in Trichy or Tiruchirapally, became one of my closest mates that year and he still is!! I can certainly recall easily the closest mates of that time and they were not many; however Shakeel still remains one of those buddies, probably the only one with humility to the surplus, Intellectual ability to the core, lots of good superlatives and, full of contentment! Well, we were invited by Shakeel to his home in Pattukottai to spend the summer of 1987, and I was not surely the one to miss the opportunity to get away from Chennai! He in fact was the first one to invite me during those great medical school years and so we s...

None takes it, when it is there to be taken. But, then it is too late and we are left shaken. Self-centered and selfish Eaten by vanity and pride  and inflated egos to guide. We may never know When it’s going to end, hence Deep in our heart There lies our fear and sorrow. Our elders Who may have been  silly We being hypocrites Never empathize Snub them on saying it’s their folly. Elders try to be complex Whilst their soul is so simple   Like a stream of water Running quietly underneath a rocky cave  Words to share Words to give so simple indeed it’s all what they need. But, then it is too late and we are left shaken. None learns it, when it's there to be taken!