Between thoughts and words

Recently we received a generous philanthropic contribution at our rural clinic and are in the process of setting up a basic laboratory service. One of the greatest challenges has been recruiting a laboratory technician. There are many young boys and girls in the local villages who have completed their diploma in medical laboratory technology, but they are not choosing medical laboratory work. While the market rate of salary for a fresh medical laboratory technology graduate is about 7 to 8 thousand rupees a month, they would get double the salary if they went for job as labourers in local manufacturing and textile export companies.  Among the few applications that we received, many of them had no practical exposure in laboratories, because they had gone away for work in these factories. We decided to take any young enthusiastic person interested in the work, train them for this purpose and gradually create a sustainable model of laboratory services. But we have been having a minor worr

While discussing with an erstwhile student this morning, the discussion rapidly morphed into an argument. The student said, "while I am grateful for the fact that you engaged in this discussion, what you are saying does not make sense to me and does not really matter to me". My initial reaction to it was anger and hurt. But then I slowly realised that there is a 20+ years age gap and a huge generation gap between us, which is the reason for such a predicament. When I brought it up, the young man pointed out to me that I am unnecessarily invoking a generation gap to cover up my inability to convince him. I had to end the conversation there, because things were getting uncomfortable. Here are some of the things which I told him, which did not make sense to him and thus led to the rapid south-bound spiral of the discussion.  1. "Self care is over-emphasised. It comes from an unnecessary heightened sense of importance for the self." Self preservation and caring for the

I stumbled upon an article in one of my social media feeds this morning during my travel to the clinic. Nora Fatehi is getting flack for her comments on feminism. In a recent podcast she is quoted to have said that "I dont need anybody" kind of feminism has destroyed the social fabric and women must play a role as nurturers. She has subsequently defended her statement that she only referred to toxic and radical feminism in this manner and is not opposed to the feminist ideology. Some commentators have asked, "have we become over-sensitive"? Are we overdoing activism, by raising voice against everything? This article got me thinking and several important events in my life that transpired over the past couple of months flashed across my mind.  Last week we had a research team meeting. We were discussing our job responsibilities for the week. There was a major temple festival ongoing in the nearby town. The main festival day, Saturday, was declared as a local holiday.

One of the most common themes that my sister and I discuss with each other is the need to get our work to be perfect before it is put out there for people to consume. Both of us are creators. I write and do podcasts and she is a painter. Our styles are very different. She will keep reviewing her painting again and again, keep finding errors here and there, revising them to the best of her ability and sometimes she will just discard some paintings without even allowing the world to see them. On the other hand, I many times don't even hear the podcast recording before I post it. I don't even review the blogs I write before I publish them. Two extreme courses of action! I have been thinking about perfectionism and what it brings to the work of a creator.  I think the need for our work to be perfect comes from different spaces: (1) A need for validation and approval, (2) A deep attachment to the content, (3) A belief that what is created is first of its kind, original, (4) A height

Yesterday was Tamil New Year Day. As is the ritual on the first day of the year, people share good wishes to one another. One of the commonly shared wishes is that of good health, and prosperity in the new year. One person wished that I should start something new, something totally unexplored before, something that excites me, something that I had always wanted to do but could not till now. It was a well-intentioned wish, and it got me thinking. This is a reflection on that wish.     Venturing into new things and constantly reinvesting oneself is a good thing, but after much thinking I have concluded that it is a privilege and not essential for a meaningful life. While I was reflecting on what this person wished for me, there were two things that I asked myself. Firstly, what is a ‘new venture’? Secondly, is there a downside to starting new things? This thought process gradually drove me to my conclusion.    Doing new things is great! It opens the mind to new horizons. It helps discove

Some of our patients have very high tolerance to pain. I have always had huge respect to people who have high pain tolerance. I saw one such woman yesterday with high levels of pain tolerance and she got me thinking.  She is a 35 year old woman from a village near our clinic. She was a reluctant visitor and was very uncomfortable in the clinic. Our community health worker accompanied her and told me, "This woman has a large swelling over her mid back to the left side. Can you please help her?" Even as the community health worker was explaining this to me, the woman was very uncomfortable and kept gesturing to her that she wants to leave. It seemed that the community health worker had coerced her to come to the clinic and get the swelling sorted out.  I began the clinical interaction by asking the woman about the swelling. She responded to all my questions in single words or sentences. "I have had it for 20 days", she said. When I asked her if it was painful, she sai