Storytellers

  Community Medicine Laboratory left side corner desk. I was seated in front of my laptop and was writing something. A young demure girl, all of 19 years walks in and stands near where I am seated. “Sir, I am interested in doing a research study. I approached my professor in General Medicine department, and they asked me to consult you regarding the study design”, she said and stood there. We started discussing her project on neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio as a predictor of early diabetic nephropathy. I told her to read up more and gave suggestions to refine her design and research tools. The very next day, the senior professor from General Medicine department meets me in the corridor and says, “Vijay, what did you say to that second-year student, she came running to me straight from you crying and said she never wants to go back to you again”. I was shocked that I had evoked that kind of a response. Sometimes unintentionally we intimidate people. I felt very bad that I had made that ...

Mrs. C was inconsolable when we saw her in the clinic yesterday. She had lost her vision recently in the past 4 months. It started as a mild blurring of vision and gradually progressed over the past four months and now she is barely able to perceive bright light. Mrs. C is an elderly lady living alone in a small hut in a village near our clinic. She has a son, daughter in law and grandchildren, but they live a few houses down the lane and they give her food three times a day. That is the only contact she has with her family. On Sundays, since it is a holiday, the grandson brings her to the clinic, stays with her and takes her back home. Four months ago, Mrs. C would at least visit some neighbors and have conversations. She would go for the rural employment guarantee scheme labor under which some minimum wage is guaranteed to people who go for work. Now, after she lost her vision, she is completely home bound, dependent on others for even her daily activities and has absolutely no conne...

  A friend of mine had received an award. It was a very prestigious award. On hearing the news of being conferred this award, my friend developed a sense of insecurity and started questioning their own worthiness to receive the award. They asked me, “I am feeling uncertain whether I am worthy of this award”. Without thinking too much about it, in a rather insensitive manner I replied, “you should not think about it like that. It is not that big an award anyway”. Now when I read what I have just typed, it looks very offensive. But at that time, I had a few reasons for saying what I said. Firstly, I wanted to allay the insecurities of a friend. Secondly, I knew that this award is mired in bureaucracy and politics and so had some heavy criticism on it. While the former reason is a noble one, the latter, though honest, is not exactly a good thing to say to someone who has just received the award. This friend became quiet after that and neither of us brought it up.     Recentl...

One of my erstwhile students and currently a good friend, taught me a wonderful lesson today. I had just wound up my routine Sunday clinic and was traveling home. “How are you Ayya?” he had texted me and we were having a text conversation. This young man has always referred to me as “Ayya” which is a beautiful word in Tamil which means many things including teacher, father, grandfather, God, Master to just name a few, basically anybody who is a respectable older male. I think he first started calling me “Ayya” implying teacher, but probably it evolved to mean father. I have a very paternal feeling to this young man, and he probably reciprocates it! Our discussion started moving towards medical practice. One of my deepest concerns has been that I am not able to practice cutting edge evidence-based medicine in my clinic as it is grossly resource deprived and the people attending the clinic are extremely poor. I was expressing this concern to him and lamenting. I was taking it to the extr...

I have been reading and meditating on Tamil devotional literature over the past few months. I started reading and interpreting the verses of the great Tamil devotional poetry titled Abhirami Andadi, which sings the praises of the universal Godly principle, that is in the form of Goddess Abhirami in the village of Thirukadaiyur, in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. The author, Abhirami Battar, who has penned these 100 verses of poetry in easy-to-understand Tamil, must have been in a state of spiritual enlightenment as he penned these verses and his spiritual journey is captured in the songs. Following this my interest in Tamil devotional literature increased and I followed it up by reading the great Tiruvasagam, literally translated to mean the Divine Verse. This was written by the great Shaivite poet, Manickavasagar, in the 9 th century and it comprises of 51 chapters. The poetic, aesthetic and devotional sensibilities of this poem are beyond description and there is a very old ...

I am traveling now in southern Tamil Nadu for my research project field work. I have resumed travel after almost a year and half and I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand a little anxious as I was traveling after a long time and on the other hand a small excitement as it will bring back some experiences that are unique to traveling. One of the nice things about traveling, even for work, is that it gives an amazing break from routine. Mornings are usually hectic, cooking, cleaning, and getting ready for work. But travel gives me a break from this routine. As I was sitting in the hotel lobby yesterday morning, sipping a piping hot cup of coffee, I took up the local newspaper in my hand. Reading the newspaper is a long-gone habit. I just look up the news on twitter feed, online news, and YouTube channels nowadays. Holding the news in the hand in the form of a crisp new paper was an amazing experience. The headlines were about the massive success of the mammoth COVID 19 vaccination dr...

  When COVID 19 hit home Vijay Gopichandran When the family members of a doctor providing care for patients with COVID 19 come down with COVID 19, some very fundamental changes start happening in the doctor’s life. I am writing a narrative of what happened to me, when my elderly parents both in their early seventies, came down with COVID 19 pneumonia one after another in a matter of a week. My hospital became a designated COVID 19 treatment centre in the latter half of May 2020. I have been on the ground providing triage services for all patients attending the hospital from late March 2020 and got more actively involved in caring for patients with COVID 19 from May. I made a few drastic changes in my lifestyle since that time because I was going to work from home, where I live with my elderly parents. I quarantined myself in my room, where my parents were not allowed. I started washing my clothes, dishes separately and stopped putting them in the common washing machine. My in...