Traveller diaries!!!

Ever since I stepped into this new place, it's been a pleasant experience of sorts. From the coziness of 20 degrees of Mumbai to 3 degrees of Hisar, I ve indeed come a long way (1500kms to be exact). A long way, away from the comfort zone .. along the untravelled and unexplored path!



On the way , I passed through the land which has produced the most astute businessmen of the country, the iron man of India and has contributed the present PM of the country. I found this place inhabited by people who love to talk, and eat ('khaman' mistaken as the dhokla of Mumbai), and enjoy every festivity with much pomp and grandeur!
once the cab driver realised that this was my first time in Gujarat , he happily narrated me the local history and geography of the place! Also told me the reason why he migrated back from borivali post retirement. (You just can't leave out borivali and ghatkopar if Ur talking about gujjus..can you??!!:) in the same breath he told me about the best cardiac centres to get a bypass done, when I had just asked him that which is the best place to go if you need a heart ka operation ?

In the usual gujju accent.. Chamanbhai Patel spoke..

Agar tumko kam paisa ma operation karaucho toh apna civil hospital ma jau.. shaath hazar(60k) mein ho jayega. Agar Rajasthan se aaye ho toh Rajasthan hospital mein jao . Nahi to CIMS hospital bhi hai. Aur agar private mein karana hai toh Anil jain Saab bhi hai, but thoda jyaada hoga. Baaki Apollo hai par woh dur padega.

I felt that I wasted 100 clock hours researching on the net while this guy gave me all the information in less than a minute.damn..

Then he said that idhar aaye ho toh Gandhi ashram aur adalaj vav bhi ghoom k jaana . Humara no likh lo , kam charge Karunga.

Well inspite of what we think about the modern day India, I could still feel the basic vintage culture still hold forte.. . Patels, Shahs, mehtas,patidars,etc still ve differences. Not all can sport a moustache. And divorcees re still taboos ! And there s still a thin line that separates 2 religions out there.

But thanks to Pranjal I had a nice time at his hostel room at bjmc Ahmadabad. Had fun esp during the 'lounge bar' episode.

See, we guys at Mumbai re used to loud music and bar= drinks. But in Gujarat, bar=×drinks..only music , plus fruit juices and shakes to go with it. That was fun as the bar had a lot of people enjoying a live performance but sans a glass of liquor in hand! I also cherish my fight with a restaurant manager when he charged us 30 bucks for mineral water but 100 bucks for 300ml coke.. finally after 30min , he realised that it's never a wise call to argue with a CVTS guy!



In the second league of my journey, I crossed the state of Rajasthan. The brave Rajputs ,always intrigued me. Our history books way back in school always made me appreciate the bravery of the Rajputs, the valiant Chetak and the lovely Padmavati ( sanjay leela bhansali too was rendered sleepless by her for many nights in continuum ). After Shivaji s warfare tactics and intelligence, Rajputs were my next favourite!

The beautiful PINK city of Jaipur, the lovely carved windows at hawa mahal and the astonishing forts and the hidden passages interconnecting them , were simply awesome. Again Rajasthan showed me two faces of modern India.. the rich re exuberantly rich travelling in jaguars while the poor re extremely poor travelling stuffed in a small bus (about a hundred of them..just as they show in the movies !!) The roads reminded me of 'jab we met' and that lovely song in which aditya and geet traverse through Rajasthan.. tourism is redefined here, probably after Kerala..this is another success model. But sadly after all these years , this place still has no thriving MNC s, no IT, no medical centres of excellence (barring Jaipur and Udaipur), and no improvement in the social strata after all these years.

But it has some awesome clothes and embroidery and amazing good food...yummy!



Next as I crossed over to the final leg of my journey, Haryana , I realised how important farming is to the nation. We happily munch on to our food, but growing it and getting it to us is a long process. Something that I now understand better. Also how canal irrigation has transformed the non agricultural land into a profitable venture is worthy of praise.

Here I improved my GK with respect to the following, eg-
How many of us know that a cow costs 1 lakh. Gives 12 litres of milk daily. They sell it for 50 rupees a litre and earn 600 bucks ..and spend 200 bucks on fodder per day. The animal is treated as a family member and has a single room shed with sloping roof and lots of hay with 2 blankets for each cow! Wow..plus as we talk of our children, here they talk about their cows and buffalos too!

This next example will give you guys some insight into the status of females in the villages of modern day.

I got a call from the emergency Dept of my hospital . The case was a 25 yr old gal pregnant for the 7th time (she has 3 kids already) with an ostium secundum atrial septal defect with severe pulmonary hypertension. Her cardiac ailment was known since her 1st pregnancy, but her in laws and the big men of her village decided that nothing should be done for it. Money should not be spent in treating a female child. So inspite of the doctors advise to get operated ,she wouldn't. And now she was at an imminent risk of losing her life in the next few hours. I got my gynaecology consultant on board and we explained that this pregnancy should be terminated, the guy should use protection and she HAS to get operated. I'm still awaiting to see her back in my opd in 6 weeks time for the surgery. Lets see...

I also heard the deplorable incident of a lady losing her life due to uterine rupture during normal labour when it was clearly told to them that a ceaserean section is indicated. But the head of the house didn't give consent and so the lady lost her life in the bargain.damn..not done..sshhhh!

Plus I ve seen people not understanding the docs advise and ruining 'theirs' in the bargain. I had a patient with left main with critical disease who wanted a discharge despite ongoing chest pain because he had a marriage to attend.

Sir, I ll be back after 15 days said he, with a sheepish grin. I pray that he does come back , and we then do the needful.

Another patient with a valve replacement done came with deranged clotting parameters with coagulopathy. On being told that she ll need admission and correction with plasma , she bluntly refused saying there s a marriage at home. And went away !!! I was shocked at the indifference. But after 2 days itself I got another call from my emergency for a pt with intracranial bleed with a history of cardiac procedure in the past. And hey lo!what do I see.. the same lady now comatose, with her family members around her. The same ones that had refused admission. And now she lay gasping , struggling with the last few drops of life left!!!:( :(

Well as a country we have to educate and respect women if we wanna call ourselves a 'developing' nation.. instead of giving loans to mallya , SBI could ve helped these people instead. And I hope that state insurance becomes a reality, in the true sense, so that we can offer everyone the best treatment without having to cut corners !

Also I had the lovely experience of guzzling on Punjabi lassi and Bajre ki roti and sarson da saag , mast mast pakodes, huge Jalebis, yummy aloo parathas ...the list goes on and on..

Well I guess it's time to sleep.. it's sooooooooo cold in this part of India and I'm getting used to 4 woolens and 4 degrees.. gotta go , for a case tomorrow..

So till next time, it's adios..

Happy Valentine's day (belated)🙂 everyone.. hope you all get Ur Valentine and the Valentine gets you too..haha..

Auf Wiedersehen..!!!