Between thoughts and words

  The 49 th  Chennai Book Fair was a good event. The event was held between 8 th  and 21 st  of January 2026. I visited twice and could not finish seeing all the stalls. I heard of many people there who visited on all the days and still couldn’t complete seeing all the stalls. On the two days that I went, was the book fair overcrowded? I wouldn’t say so. The first time I went alone and spent 4 hours and the second time I went with a friend and spent around 2. Both days the crowd was not too much. Most of the stalls were empty and there were a lot of people cruising the aisle having not decided about entering into any particular stall. There were some with specific agenda, for example, there was a group of people with ochre robes, monks of some order, who were all crowding the spiritual and devotional literature stalls. As expected, the stalls that sold English books and novels had a lot of young crowds. My friend, with whom I had visited the second time knew exactly ...

Some patients give me some of the most unexpected and unique perspectives about my clinical work. Yesterday was a very busy clinic. It was 2 PM and no major drama had happened till then. Mrs. O walked in with her granddaughter. She walked slowly with a mild stoop in her posture, but there was a graceful poise in her demeanour. A gentle smile that was somewhere between a smile of familiarity and a smile of meeting a new person was adorning her face.     “I have a troublesome itch all over my body. I am unable to sleep at night because of this” she said and looked at me with anticipation.    She was a woman of a few words. Many of my patients like talking. They express their symptoms with animated words and exclamations. They throw in a lot of onomatopoeic words like “jilu jilu”, “misu misu”, “jivvu…” etc. Some of them narrate their problems round and round in a loop. They would start with a main complaint, describe it in detail, skip to the next complaint and then to ...

  I have been thinking about futility of debates and arguments. Recently I was engaged in a debate. It is still ongoing. I will explain the details of the debate first and then write my thoughts on futility of arguments.   In early November I attended an ethics committee meeting. (I am a member in the committee) We reviewed research proposals to decide whether the proposals describe the ethical conduct of research. Specifically, we had to look after the best interest of the research participants in these studies. We had to ensure that they are not being exploited, no harm is being done to them, their rights and safety is protected.  If there are any issues that we identify then we provide our recommendations to the researchers to modify their research in the best interest of the people who will participate in the study.    It was an online meeting of 3 hours. I attended the meeting from home. One of the studies that was proposed was a public health program....