Republic

When all humanity comes by nature

 When yours is as important as mine

When rules are more than followed

When laws are not meant to escape

When freedom is more than a right

When duty is more than your work

When a national day is not a holiday

We shall call ourselves a Republic.

-R-

Sunday Afternoon

On a silent Sunday afternoon

The clock goes slow, tick tock

The wheels roll on the road

The windows tremble in the wind 

The birds too tired to chirp

The sun is too high on the top

The stars do not want the sky

The clouds too are out of sight

Things all natural

Just like life

Where there is so much left

Like every other day

For every other reason

To dos, to meet and to remember

On a silent Sunday afternoon

The clock goes slow, tick tock

And all you want to do is sleep.

-R

Accidental India - Book Review

Picture Courtesy

“A nation of a billion people cannot wait endlessly for accidents. India deserves better”

It surely does. But progress, politics and policies are beyond the scope of their knowledge as well as the will of understanding for our average countrymen. And there is where we should hope to bring in some change because unless the knowing and realization happens of what contributes to the development, of what causes the problem we cannot find out what is the solution. There is more to change than what we expect from tweets, status updates, text messages, forwards, picture shares, candle lights and peace march. The sooner we realize what makes and breaks our nation and do something about this prime matter the better.

The book ‘Accidental India’ by Shankkar Aiyyar has captured seven events of national change over the years and explained them with extreme detailing with excerpts and experiences from people involved in them, each section by itself reflects the eagle eyed research executed in writing this book. There could not have been a better time than now for reading it, I completed it today morning. It just left me more aware of the facts, and more perplexed with the idea that we are paying a ‘criminal cost of neglect’ a phrase rightly mentioned somewhere in the book. 

Change per se is a highly over rated but under executed thought. Unless there is crisis, we do not think of the situation as a problem. Revolutions happen only when we are on the verge of a break down. What makes us wait till then, is it an Indian thing? Maybe not, there are a hundred other examples to cite from the other parts of the world. But that is the last thing with which we can justify ourselves. Speaking of us Indians our failures go carefully planned more than our developments which are mere accidents for which we cannot thank our leaders enough. Read this book to know on how, when and where we went wrong and what happened in the process. Our loss has always been more than our gain. Our deepest regret would be what the author quotes here in this book, Milton Freidman, the economist’s words way back in 1963 which is nothing less than right:

“India will stretch into centuries what took other countries only decades."

Wish we prove him wrong. Amen.

-R

P.S : This review is a part of the Book Review Programme at www.blogadda.com Participate now to get free books.

Fire (At) Work

"You are going to cry if you enter" is what my friend told me before we made our way to work that day. That would have been the case usually for reasons as they are in in any other work place. Load, duties, responsibilities and pressures alike.We entered through the emergency exit, our first time that way. The moment we stepped in to the place  we had left the last evening at half past four there was something more than we had expected. A laboratory buzzing twenty four seven with machines, students running around with culture plates and reaction tubes, technicians processing the samples, teachers reporting and flagging off at the reporting desk. Well that was not what we saw. There were unfamiliar faces trying not to step on the cables and broken glass, cleaning up the inch layer of soot on every surface possible and trying to figure out what used to lie in the same place a day ago. Each on of us who worked in this microbiology laboratory until last midnight was confused more than shocked, a fire accident had slopped it all.


Thankfully this was contained at the first floor of our hospital. It wouldn't have been easy for the ten floors above the place with patients, doctors, staff n lives more. For many outside the place, our lab was a small part of the hospital. For patients a left turn up the staircase on the way to the out patient department where they would give sputum, urine, stool, throat swab, skin, nail scraping, drinking water samples and what not "You will get the reports after two days" was the common word. For clinicians more often, a telephone number where they would get the retro viral and hepatitis status before surgery or a blood culture report of patients in the intensive care unit. But for some who built this laboratory from scratch, for those who worked day and night in that one place for years, for those who worked as much as they learnt during their post graduate course in medical microbiology, for those whom this place was beyond its material their whole world was upside down, just in one hour. It surely was under a reductor curse.


Right now our regular diagnosis work is continuing at a basic set up in our medical college building, we started within hours after this mishap. The shifting process in that moment of crisis was not a cake walk. It took us almost two days to decide what would go where and what would work how, we still are in the process of settling down. Hopefully we will get back to our laboratory very soon where the real fun is. A place which always used our time and mind, and made it as colourful as possible. We, especially our professors cannot keep this place in black or at back for a long time. Someone has said " None can destroy iron but it owns rust can, likewise none can destroy a person but his own mindset can" Experience will make you agree. You just need the fire in the right place. This is where we microbiologists find our fire in:

And yeah I did cry.

-R.

The Secret Wish List - Book Review

 A good book has more than lines and characters.You can read them in one breathe not for their simplicity, but because they weave a web around you while you flip through the pages, and before you realize you become a part of the story itself. And that's the only reason you reach the last line and sigh with a smile. This happened to me well this evening after reading 'The Secret Wishlist', having read Preeti Shenoy's previous works I had to pre order this one.

The most appealing thing about her writing is the way our day to day challenges are portrayed, and what it takes to break the stereotypical barriers we have around ourselves. Be it men or women, be at home or work we fence our wishes subconsciously.And therefore the resolutions, wish lists, bucket lists, things to do before I die and what not. But it is never too late to make yourself understand that only you can make them come true. Life gives you enough chances. This book is just about it.

An another important thing is to have and value your own support system. It could be friends, parents,  partner, children or sometimes even  a stranger. And in some situations these people may be in your life but they cannot really do anything about your long list of wishes until you take that one step. And that would mean a big leap of faith in yourself first. There is nothing to stop once you start doing the To- Do's with it. Dumbledore rightly says:

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends"

A foot up the ladder, this book is about courage to stand up to yourself. I am glad it was worth a read on a post night duty day.

-R

The Giant Wheel

While the giant wheel turns
The ones who fall
Rise again and along
In the speed of time
With the hope of next
Meanwhile all good years
Shall end and begin
In one blink
Before we think
of days and dates
For they are more
Than mere numbers
Those many reminders
That we hardly remember
Too are forgotten
And also forgiven
Before we know
What lingers in the mind
And lives in the heart
Is the laugh, is the scream
Is the ride, is the friend
Who sat next and held your hand
To his chest close and strong
While the giant wheel turns
The ones who fall
Rise again and along



A HAPPY 2013 :-)




-R