The Real Aruvankadu....

After a quite night in the guest house, we set off for a house warming in a quarters alloted to my father. When he told us we would be walking to that place little did I knew on how far it would be...He showed us the school where he had joined and that school wasnt big either like the SCSM polytechnic where he was a lecturer..There was this huge factory and one could see the big stuff inside.. We walked along the factory wall and soon we were at the aruvankadu railway station... It was a small station with a canteen (that canteen is my favourite even now..) but the excitement didnt last long - first there was no "tooth" like 3rd rail and second no train was to be seen!!!!!...

There was a big mountain and large number of small houses on it.... We were happy on hearing that we wont be climbing that mountain..(I was already tired then and was asking if there was cycle rickshaw or bus..). The huge factory was still there, a road ran along the factory wall but instead of houses on the other side it was a small mountain on which railway track ran with those tall trees, shrubs and bushes.... There were no cycles/TVS 50 on the road and not even human beings were seen... By then I had asked dad how far that house was atleast 20 times... Dad patiently kept telling me it was just after a turn as many times......

The only human I remember seeing was the temple priest at the "Paarai Muneeswarar" temple.. The statue in the temple was very scary - with long beard, ferocious eyes , the tongue out and some violent weapons in the hand... Adding to this cast was the temple priest who had "squint" and one eye blind!!!... (In the later years I found him a very nice man)... Contrary to the Gurukals (priests) I had seen in Mohanoor who wore dhoti and poonal, this man wore nice shirt/sweater and never had "Kudumi" - Kind of tail in the head.

We continued walking for another 10 min and reached this place " M Type quarters" where dad was allotted a quarter. All the houses looked alike... there was a big lawn in front, a lot of trees and a hill behind the quarter (the railway track on the hill)... Our house number was 424/2, the one that was straight from the entry point....

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=11.3635086&lon=76.7578322&z=18&l=0&m=

Our neighbour was Mr Ramalingam, dad s collegue who helped us with intial start up... Many of dad s collegues lived in the same area but I was too busy to be bothered about all that... Once the house warming was over it was play time for me and I kept running all over until I entered a house similar to mine (I thought it was my house). In a split of a minute i knew i had lost the right place - this house had sofa, furniture.. There was an fair aunty who spoke in a language i never understood (hindi!!). I was in tears having lost the way and she took me to my home.My dad had known her already, she lived in 425/1 and everyone called her "Jabalpur aunty". She was a very kind person and all children liked her.

After this I stayed indoors for a while till I heard the steam engine s whistle.... At last nearly after 16 hours of reaching this place I saw a moving train....Toy train is what one ll feel on seeing the way it chugs up and down... this one was coming from ooty, down the hill so a little faster....The sight of this Nilgiri Mountain railway train always makes me feel happy and energetic and there is no science behind it... "Moondram Pirai / Sadma" had utilised this train much better than any other movie..

Soon on the road in front of the quarters a bus crossed.. We were told one COONOOR - OLD ARUVANKADU bus and two OOTY - COONOOR buses plied in that road... Just three buses to see... and no colourful private buses... less human beings.... trees and bushes everywhere, people had scared me about snakes (Aruvankadu means forest of snakes)...Moreover I started missing my tricycle, our "LUNA" and my play toys... The icing to all these was the fact that I/We had to walk to school far off.... and no school bus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What appeared like an great place a day earlier had already bored me and brought tears.... but then one seldom becomes unhappy while in heaven....

Journey to Aravankadu - The little heaven....

Aravankadu is a small town on the NH67 (SH 6 in 1988) between ooty and coonoor in the nilgiris. This place is a heaven on earth to me - I spent close to 20 years in this little place. I have a lot of fond memories here and a few bitter ones too. The bitter ones are negilible compared to the fond memories here... My first journey to this place itself is a fond memory..

It was in July 1988, a warm sunday (I dont remember the date exactly - probably July 10), few days after island express met with a tragic accident on a bridge over river in kerala and it was on this sunday episode of "Ramayan" that Ravana was killed by Rama. We left for aruvankadu from coimbatore in the afternoon...

It was strange in the bus stand that people stood in queue and boarded the buses.... the buses were smaller than the buses i had seen before and had only one entrance that too in the rear end. The bus looked cute with red/green single stripe over a cream paint and it belonged to "cheran transport corporation". This again was a different site to me as i had known only blue coloured large "Anna transport corporation" buses.

I sat with my dad in the front seat and behind us were mom and bro... Half way through it started raining heavily and I remember dad woke me from sleep and put my sweater on... After sometime there were no coconut or palm trees seen, instead lot of other fat and tall trees...The bus was no more fast like those anna transport buses and I felt the bus was crying... (while climbing up the hill)... The whole journey was exciting as there were so many turns and bends with bridges over small waterfalls - i always enjoyed the steering wheel being maneuvered continuously and change of gear!!!! Rain and mist all along made it a great sight...

The most exciting scene was the sight of railway track, a little unusual one...there was a "tooth" like 3 rd track in between the two rails... In one particular place the track went into a tunnel and it was only the first time I saw a railway tunnel... Not seeing a train on the track was a disappointment...(Dad had already told us that there the engine was at the rear end of the train instead of front)...

By the time bus reached coonoor the rain had stopped and sun was out again (evening)... For the first time since afternoon the bus stopped for few minutes and started moving slowly (crying!!) again. The sight of coonoor railway station and the glimpse of few blue coloured different railway coaches are still afresh in my head. Soon we got down at aruvankadu just after a main gate.... it was chill but was feeling good... there was this huge main gate of "Cordite Factory" and either side of the gate an ancient "cannon rifle" was parked. We were to stay in a guest house, a few minutes walk from the main gate and on the way there was a big childrens park with slide, swing etc... We stayed in Room no 8, a room that appeared like a suite...

Later that night after dinner dad took us to for a walk and showed us the school where me and my bro had been given admission.. The school was neither double storied like SCSM (where i studied LKG/UKG) nor had a big playground!!!!;instead it looked like some houses together... later i came to know it was indeed group of unoccupied houses that became school/classrooms....

This place had very tall trees with nice smell (I could never pronounce the name EUCALYPTUS then), had place to play, the school was small, so were the buses, blue coloured train with a cute steam engine in same colour, roads were clean, no muddy roads, people spoke tamil!!!!, houses were not in cliff as i had imagined and we were staying in a nice place..(I didnt no the guest house was temporary). But it was only from the next day i knew the real "Kaadu"!!!!!!!!!!

Mission Admission:B.S. Physician Assistant

Entering B.S.Physician Assistant was itself a tough task, atleast to me... after all it is affiliated to BITS - Pilani and an off campus program of this top ranked university. The preliminary filtering happens at Pilani and when I received an hall ticket for written/oral examination I was overjoyed and surprised. I felt a little proud and why not? - I had been selected from among a few hundreds all over the country from different syllabus to appear in the next round of challenge that was to be held at the Madras Medical Mission(MMM), Chennai - a place for which I had fallen flat already and had started to dream being there!!!!....

25th July 2000 - the day of entrance test at the MMM and I was there with my father. Many fathers and few families had accompanied their aspiring bright young son/daughters. I knew from the list that 81 from few 100 odd candidates have been called for the test. I saw few north indian fathers/sons, few andhra girls and I was very proud of myself as it was the first time I was competing at the"National level". There were quite a few "nuts "who discussed what they studied with each other assuming all that would appear in the paper and a few my kinda guys too - pretty casual (atleast pretended to be). All of us were sent to the state of art auditorium in the 3rd floor, something I was seeing for the first time in life . "My heart will go on" from Titanic was being played in the background and I took a seat in the last row, patiently watching people scramble for first row seats...Few minutes after me one of those casual guys entered my row, crossed me and took a seat and a little later a north indian guy with his father entered the same row, crossed the casual guy and sat few seats apart. All 3 of us appeared unnerved by the rules of test(negative marking for wrong answers) and finished off the test pretty soon. After a break some highly impressive video about the hospital was screened followed by a tour to various departments of the hospital. A senior PA named Lakshmi took us around and I am sure all the parents were highly impressed by her... The results of the test were put on the board and I had a reason to smile!!! the marks column against my name read 29 and I was one of the 41 candidates selected for the viva voce to be held the next day....My dad probably was the most surprised person on my elevation to the second round...

26th July 2000 - MMM again and 7th floor this time. Vive voce was at 2 pm and from the list I knew I was the 1st candidate.I was just one stage away from getting into BITS - Pilani.If I am through I would be in the same university as my bro and in a bigger/stylish hospital, enrolled for a tougher programme than his...For the first time I was nervous and lot of people looked at me with eager/curious and sympathetic eyes, only made it worse.. The interview was a breeze, the wise men who sat there asked questions that I would have answered several 100 times like a tourist guide - (What is cordite?, its importance, how it is made, What is ooty famous for etc).. I was out within 5 minutes with a big smile telling my dad I had done well but then there were 40 more candidates which meant that many parents . a Few stood around and "interrogated" about my session inside the room. I was bored as time went on...Fathers became friends, few gals among themselves but i stayed isolated just as one of the fathers threw a thunderbolt saying bad people would not be interviewed longer... The north Indian guy with his dad and the casual guy were all there. My dad told me that the north Indian was from Bihar and his father a professor.... The interview got over by 7 pm and I had already become anxious for the result. By 8 pm the same fellow who on the previous day pasted the list brought another list which had 21 students selected for the course.... Through the crowd I went and checked the list to find my name there on the top of the list (not topper just the roll no).... I thought that was the biggest achievement i ever did..... Later I came to know those two nice guys who sat in the same row during exam were Tanmay Acharia and Anandkumar. Incidentally, we three ended up being room mates after joining the course....

Looking back I can only laugh at those bitter sweet memories, but then the mood was all together different.... It is often said that the journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step and probably that viva voce day was a beginning in this long journey of adult life....

A resolution being broken...

When I decided to start blogging i made a resolution (within myself) that I would never write any derogatory or negative stuff about any particular person or indulge in framing/protraying someone as a "villainous character". But having known myself pretty well, I was more or less sure at some point i would break this resolution... Its just that it happened little too early.. Yes like anyone in this universe I too have my own justifications which by all standards are acceptable.

All my earlier blogs were serious ones or in other words sort of boring(irritating) ones. After repeated comments/suggestions from friends I have been thinking of writing something in a lighter vein..Tanmay Acharia in his comment asked me how could I not write about Emmanuel alias eetham (as we called him) while writing about PA course.. On reading that I burst out laughing as i had deliberately avoided his name keeping my resolution in mind. I hope these justifications are good enough to start writing about Emmauel - Of course I ll try my level best not to write negative things about him.

Dr. C. Emmanuel (a) E(2002 onwards) first came into my life in the summer of 2000.. He was only Mr.Emmanuel then, Programme Co ordinator for the Physician Assistant course. In a way like the vice chancellor/Principal.For all those who want to picturise him please imagine Prof Cherian Character in "FIVE POINT SOMEONE".This comparison only because BITS too has grading system like IIT and this character too influenzed things like the one in that novel.Similarities end there.

E showed me (us) what life is... What hurdles and nightmares mean and how to overcome the hurdle and develop tolerance to nightmares...Made us realise that any tom, Dick and Harry too can get a Ph.D so easily!!!! after all he got one too...He was a man with "vision" and great foresight - or else why would he talk about bypass surgeries in kids as early as 2002 and drugs to open calcium channels in the body when only calcium channel closing drugs existed!!!....A man whose growth was phenomenal - from hero puch to hero honda CD 100ss to Maruthi Wagon R in no time....

A man who made me realize that god and evil both existed!!. A master who knew what to do each student and seldom missed a chance he found to use them... A man who tested students with his intellectual and intelligent questions that made us run from pillar to post to library to at times to the washroom.... He never revealed the answers and it was always left for the students to find (!!!). Last but not the least he is the only man who knows the address of the kid with Mosaicism pattern of Down syndrome in India!!!!!!!!... And am still not able to find that kid nor the address..................

(P.S. I have tried my level best to still keep my resolution.... and please dont laugh at this serious blog).....

Life in a hospital....

When I read Ravishankar's comment suggesting me to write about life inside hospital and how a day goes about here i felt it wasnt a bad idea and decided to keep the topic for future. Call it luck or destiny I have been having a pretty busy time since the minute I entered the unit at 3:55 PM last evening till about a few minutes back. I decided to take a break and I could not think of another topic at this moment..(If u r wondering why the hell am i blogging in the midst of a busy night, the answer is here - "a break to refresh myself to be active for another 8 hours"). Being busy is nothing new and I thoroughly enjoy working for long hours till one or many demoralising things happen simlutaneously or in series.

The structure and nature of the work is almost the same, be it day or night with few minor differences. Invariably the duty starts with what we call "Rounds" that includes detailed examination of the children/kids/patients, their parameters and a "Plan" is formulated for what must be the next course of action. The plan is usually made after a detailed discussion about the events that had taken place in the period before the person beginning duty arrives, what is expected line of action and results.

The plans made are neither like rules (which are often not followed) nor a formality, but are"guidelines"that helps the duty person to keep things in order. While most of the time we stick on to the plans made, situations do arise where we need to change or remodel our original plans. These changes happen based on our assessment. " Assess and Re assess" is the key while working in a intensive/critical care unit.

The duty ends with a Rounds, during which whatever I mentioned in the above two paragraphs happen again. This cycle happens round the clock, 7 days a week and all through the year. It appears just that simple while writing and it is infact so when everything is fine and in order. But that luxury doesnt happen daily. Infact what i have mentioned as luxury are those "boring"days, when you feeling like running away somewhere or even changing profession!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Physician Assistant (PA) - Who, Why and What is it all about??

Thanks to all the nice and gracious people who showered their valuable/invaluable comments.. A special thanks to Ravishankar and Tanmay (2nd follower/ ?fan of my blog). This particular blog is about "Physician assistant", thats me, my profession and my degree/designation...

Physician assistants are set of medical people who are trained in all aspects of medicine to work at junior and intermediate level in a healthcare set up so that the workload on the "specialists" are reduced. A popular concept in the united states since late 60s, this was imported to India with a "Indian flavour" by Dr K.M.Cherian, a legandary and reknowned cardiac surgeon.

In a country like ours where the health care is still not accessible to the needy and economically deprived, this concept ideally should have become a "instant hit" but sadly never took off. Finally the BITS - Pilani and the Madras Medical Mission started this program as a vocational one but soon a full time basic science degree came into existence. This basic science degree attracted lot of 10+2 passed students from all over the country, appearing to afford a alternative to all those who dreamt of medicine and could not get through for whatever reasons..They taught everything that are taught to doctors but not in depth and not enough of exposure clinically and practically...The program made young enthusiastic, skilled and brilliant medical professionals, not doctors but better than just MBBS or at times "specialists"...

Soon this i presume was seen as an opportunity to create "cheap labour" that not only cut the costs of employment to the company but also provided better/ similar standard of results at work as done by the specialists...Hence more students were enrolled, more work in the name of learning/teaching were extracted and the concept that was still in budding stage meant very limited opportunity outside meant low salaries..... but it wasnt just that... the lack of understanding about the program and concept by the ones who run this and people outside...

True.. the degree has made my life and feeds me daily... but that doesnt hide the fact am still not a doctor... the easiest way i describe myself is "Doctor maadhiri... aaanaa doctor illa.." In a way in decent terms its "Jack of all trades, King of none"...Yet this one not only gave me a career but also an opportunity to survive in the field of medicine and serve the mankind....

An attempt on serious writing

My second blog too brought the same (pathetic/ terrible) response from public here I am writing one more.. before that thanks to the 11 people who mailed your responses my email rather than posting in the blog site... all of ur mails gave me a lotttttttt of encouragement ( most of them were abusive though...) and i accept all that with the right spirits... after all VEERANUKKU VETRIUM THOLVIYUM JAGAJAM!!! Once i decided to write something serious quite a lot came to mind, of which most of them I have repeatedly narrated to my friends and a few locked inside the grey matter for a decade or two now. The first thing that came to my mind was "Trichy" the place i was born and little i know till date about the city to write..apart from the great Rockfort and Michael's icecream Parlour all that I know is no 4, Parayadi street, the place where my uncles lived and yes thats the place i spent most of vacations during childhood... the next thing that flashed was "Gudiyatham", a town near vellore and this was where my first few steps of life began.... nothing much i remember about this place other than my first room mate in college and a good friend for 9 years now, Mr Anandkumar Jothiprakasam. I can easily fill in many blogs if I write about him, but for time being I shall keep the plan in reserve. Mohanur, a small town on the banks of river cauvery near Namakkal in TN is where i learnt 1..2...3... a...b..c..d.... its this place that still remains as the earliest memories of my childhood and may be i can write one full episode on this place... when even remote villages have seen so many developments this place has hardly developed from 1988 to 2008 (when i revisited this place). Major portion of my life was spent in Aruvankadu, near ooty in the nilgiris a place i thot was the only heaven that existed on earth until I knew of Ambarnath, a suburb near Mumbai (wow.. yet another heaven...). There are other places too chennai... bangalore... and delhi(where i write this blog from)...

Second blog... and why?????????

Now that its been two days since my debut and following a very poor response (!!!) from public (ravishankar - uyir nanban exception) i decided to try my luck again with this second one... Just like the first one this also has no meaningful or decent content. At least after this I am requesting (u can call it warning ) the public to give their valuable comments. and if u guys continue to ignore i ll keep writing more and froward to individual emails till u guys block my name.. so better act fast. if any or some of u wonder if i dont have anything better to do then u r spot on..... i ve nothing better to do right now...