Blossoms - The Book Store

"Spot-this place" well if I were to tell this to all the book lovers of Bangalore I am sure as God made little green apples you will agree on a date with me here ;-) I was here after a couple of months and like always it felt like home. I buy books from this place for my bookshelf like my mother would buy veggies from the market for the kitchen. The other bookstores in and around the town are too sophisticated to please me. Bean bags and coffee tables, stationery and accessories is something that disgraces the whole purpose of a bookstore. 

Blossoms for me is like an old treasure house. I usually try and pick books of unread authors, the variety is unbelievable- from old to new. What I like forward to is an old book or two between the hundreds with a personal note or a signature. They add a human touch to the book, I think of what the old reader would have felt after reading,  to go through the same chain of thoughts in a completely different place and time, well that's the contentment no Kindle would give to me.

Also there is this interesting Tumblr page by Supreeth about conversations that happen in this bookstore- Overheard At Blossoms. I made sure I was quiet today for the fear of making it here ;-)

I am off to read one of the books I got for myself. One of my resolutions is to read more and nice books this year. I hope it is treating you all well. Have a happy one, you all!

-R.

My Field

"Beautiful!" I remarked when I found this in a field while focusing through the microscope.One of my technicians who was processing samples received in the morning added "It looks like a bouquet Ma'am!" I  gave her a smile and asked her to inform the wards. Many a times we have these eureka moments in the laboratory when we find something prototypical. What matters to us and gives a push is the help it does to decide on the patient's treatment. 

This picture is of a fungus called Candida which grew in the blood culture of a patient diagnosed of sepsis, the moment we informed the clinician about some budding yeast cells being found in the patient's blood he was started on antifungals, we are hoping now that he gets better. We receive hundreds of such samples everyday from different kinds of patients- from neonates in NICU to pre employment check ups to patients with undiagnosed fever to people who come for routine check ups.  Some mornings turn into evenings before we realize. 

Diagnostics is one branch in India which is coming of age. There is no test that cannot be done, you ask for it and you have a panel. So much of science involved in the kind of work we do. A drop of reagent or the temperature of the incubator can make all the difference. Between the laboratory tests ordered and the report that ones gets, there are critical processes that decide what next. While the presence of antibodies in a case like vaccination is a good sign, the presence of the same in an acute infection is a dreadful one. Hippocrates, the Father of Modern Medicine rightly says:

"Correct is to recognize what diseases are and whence they come; which are long and which are short; which are mortal and which are not; which are in the process of changing into others; which are increasing and which are diminishing; which are major and which are minor; to treat the diseases that can be treated, but to recognize the ones that cannot be, and to know why they cannot be; by treating patients with the former, to give them the benefit of treatment as far as it is possible. "

While an abnormal report interests me scientifically, a report with a final comment as NORMAL satisfies me immensely. In fact I end up imagining the joy on the patient's face each time I click VERIFY. My day either way is made if some help has happened. Today was 'Beautiful!' indeed!


-R.

Awake

Firstly wishes to you all my friends, a very happy and prosperous new year. I belong to the category of people who consider December 31^st or January 1^st as just another good day, I also admit that I retrospect a lot at the year end. On that note, one of the best decisions of mine in 2014 was to join a post graduate diploma course in medical law and ethics in National Law School, here in Bangalore. Although most of the learning is through distance education, the contact classes held once a month is something I look forward to. A few days ago, after one such class on a Sunday I couldn’t help but notice one of my favourite poems in the corridor. I stood in front of the frame and read the poem twice, despite knowing it by heart. The scenes that came to my mind are unexplainable. Today when we have another three hundred and sixty five days in hand let us make use of the new opportunities that WILL come our way. Hopefully we become better and make this world a beautiful place to live in.

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high 
Where knowledge is free 
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls 
Where words come out from the depth of truth 
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection 
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way 
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit 
Where the mind is led forward by thee 
Into ever-widening thought and action 
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake”

-Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali-

-R.