I knew a friend once. He always dressed fashionably. The latest trends blossomed neatly on his person. But he had a dark, festering secret. His underwear was the worst imaginable. I saw it as family heirlooms, handed unchanged and unwashed through generations. The holes would let rats through, and the stink could raise a dead […]
Category: Rational ruminations
Want to kill without remorse? You can.
Usually, I avoid images of genocides. Even written words. I haven’t seen ‘Schindler’s List’ or “Hotel Rwanda’; nor have I read Anne Frank. I was tricked into reading ‘Two Lives’ by Vikram Seth. I didn’t know it had a ring side of view of the suffering inflicted by the Germans. I know. Hitler and the […]
The fruitful walk
I barely knew Dr. Rajagopal. But I had worked in Calicut for my MCh in the opening decade of the millennium, and the Institute of Palliative Medicine was famous. His life’s work was not only that building I saw, but a people’s movement that has now spread all over the country. Curative Medicine has made […]
The Great Thesis-Escape.
Surgery residency, most young medics know, is meant to be tough. The hours. The sleeplessness. The heat, the lot. In India, a crushing hierarchy and slavish obeisance. A continuous hum of vague self-pity. Deliberate implantation of a feeling of worthlessness. The perpetual emptiness of never, ever being appreciated. It was a bit muted in JIPMER. […]
Omicron- Apocalypse? Or…No.
Last month I had to get my daughter to Bangalore. She had to start her classes at the University. It was an ordeal. RTPCRs for the entire family to get out of the airport there. Then she had to be in quarantine for seven days before joining classes! Whatever for? By that time, there were […]