I still don't remember when I started trying to create a website and how I actually succeeded. But I do remember trying MS Word, then frontpage, cutting and pasting code, getting free scripts and creating my website and blog without knowing much HTML and absolutely no PHP, javascript etc. I've tried hard and the results don't seem really bad at all!!
So when my Dad was approached to help establish a Christian TV Network in Chennai, he requested me to create their website! I felt flattered but could not turn down the request. Inspite of my limitations I finally managed to get most of the website up and functional. I now understand the meaning of the quote "God does not look at your ability but your availability!"
You can now see the Rejoice TV website here @ www.rejoicetv.in.
The site has details about the TV network, audio, video, music, a members area, prayer requests and more. There's still a lot of work to be done and I hope I have the time and the ideas for it. Suggestions are welcome - but keep them simple and in English!!

One of the things I miss in Trichy is good music. Very rarely do we have bands or music programs happening here. A few days ago I bumped into Paul (I rarely meet him) and on casual inquiry found that a youth (teenagers) music program was scheduled on May 31st at St Johns Church in the morning service.
My parents were here this weekend and we went to church and were treated to wholesome Christian music. There were about 10 songs and the girls who sang were amazing. Their vocals blended in unison and the parts were phenomenal. Wish I had recorded the audio to share with you all! I can leave you with just a picture but even that does not capture the awesome music we were treated to!

One of the features on my website is the A2J SMS service where I send Christian quotes to people who opt in. Once in a while I get people abroad who also subscribe.
To tell you the truth I've been a little lax and the frequency of messages I send out has been drastically reduced - just my laziness.
Today I received an SMS from a person in Iran.
"Hi, excuse me. How can I receive more beautiful sentence, like the sentence that you send to me?!"
His name is Ali and he had subscribed a few weeks ago and I had sent him this message when he joined, "If you forget to forgive, you have forgotten that you are forgiven".
I'm amazed that people all over the world are get encouraged!
I don't know who you are Ali, but thank you for nudging me and encouraging me to be more regular in this service! God bless you.

I've written a brief intro to Grace and her baby here on A2J before.
Today the baby is 9 months old and the transformation is almost unbelievable. I'm enclosing a picture to show you the difference. Its amazing the way the baby has grown and is now bubbly and quite naughty - weighing about 8 kg now (quite a change from the 800 grams at birth!). Don't miss out the happy family in the foreground and my colorful OPD in the background in this pic.

Today we just dropped into a small exhibition and lazed around the stalls. It also had plenty of games and there was a Magic Show in one corner. The show was brilliant - about 20 minutes of eye-candy that left you baffled. The magician had just a rickety stage and curtains and a squeaky music system but pulled off the tricks really well. And to top it all the entrance fee was just 10 rupees (25 cents!!).
I was also impressed with what he said at the start of the show.
"Magic is an art - like cinema, music and painting. Its not a mantra".
Mantra is an Indian word which denotes a supernatural occurrence. Even in modern society people believe in 'Godmen' who simply do magic and give them a lot of importance. Most of these tricks are what can be performed by magicians.
So where do Christians stand? I believe in Miracles - and I believe that all credit needs to be given only to God for that and that every miracle brings you closer to God. Christians who avidly seek out 'persons' who will prophecy or perform healing just to get personal benefit are no different from others seeking out Godmen who perform tricks. Yes, God does perform miracles and some of them through his disciples. But the attention needs to be on God - not on human acts!
I'll wind up this blog entry with a link to a magic trick we saw today.
Click here to see the magician perform a rope knot trick - purely for entertainment!

K had a nightmare of a time. She came to our hospital with an undiagnosed fever and during her stay delivered a preterm baby. K had to be shifted to CMC to sort out her fever and the baby struggled to survive in our nursery. She had mild HMD and needed CPAP (oxygen under pressure). Just when her tiny lungs seemed to have recovered she blew a pneumothorax - a hole in her lungs that caused air to leak into her chest. I quickly put in a chest tube and luckily she improved. A few days later the tube was removed and she was started on nasogastric feeds. All seemed well till one day I noticed she seemed to be breathing slightly faster. A chest Xray revealed fluid around of her lungs (pleural effusion). I expected it to be pus or water and took a little fluid out for tests - and for the first time in my life I stared at chyle! Chyle is a milky white fluid (see the picture) and is a very rare cause for a pleural effusion. I confiremd it was chyle by doing tests we had never done before and when it kept reaccumulating we had to put in another chest tube. By this time the mother was back, but we couldn't allow her to feed the child. To cut a long story short, the chyle kept coming out while hope kept running out and we finally made a few tricky decisions before we could finally pull out the tube. She slowly gained a little weight and could be sent home. I couldn't promise the mother that all would be OK, but the very fact that they could go home after almost 50 days in the hospital brought a smile to their face. K's baby has several more hurdles to face in her life. But she seems a great fighter - although her frail body weighing about 1.75 kg would make you think otherwise. Say a prayer for her when you read this - I have no idea what life has in store for her.
"Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand."
(words and music by Ira Stanphill)

We treat patients who have all kinds of backgrounds. Today we admitted a boy with suspected Dengue fever who was a little sick. He needed a few blood transfusions and a lot of monitoring. His father was a political worker from the Municipality office and wanted a guarantee that the treatment would be successful. Unfortunately I could only tell him the truth - that there was a possible danger to life. He didn't seem happy about it. Out of the blue i found that he was a close friend to G annan and this made him feel better as G annan knows us well. While the father was convinced some of his friends were unfortunately goondas and they were overheard saying "If anything happens to the boy we will beat up the doctors and break the hospital." This scared the nurses. I straightaway called the father and told his straight in the face that we were not scared of him or his 'friends' as we were confident of how to treat the boy and threats would only scare the nurses and interfere with the treatment. The father apologised profusely and said that none of his 'friends' would come near the hospital and that what they spoke was their personal opinion and he was happy with the treatment. G annan too spoke to the father and things were peaceful. The boy recovered completely in a few days and went home completely healthy.
These days, as doctors, we face threats from unexpected quarters and need Gods special protection, wisdom and guidance.
Please do pray for this boy - his mother died a couple of years ago and he is being brought up by his Aunt. As his dad and friends are probably not the best role models, he could easily fall prey to the wrong things in life. He too needs Gods protection, wisdom and guidance!

You can read the story of Balaji in these two blog entries.
Entry 1
Entry 2
Its been well over a year now and Balaji is doing extremely well. He popped into OPD today with a cold and it was great seeing him play around, pulling at the toys, wishing me, saying his name and attempting to say a nursery rhyme! This is one of the best parts of being a doctor - seeing a child recover from near death and then coma back healthy!!
You can see a video of Balaji here.

I actually noticed it on the Chennai trip, but it started becoming more obvious now even inside the city. The car tended to drag to the left and I had to consciously keep the steering a little to the right to keep it straight. I rechecked tire pressures and they seemed OK. On New Year when we parked for lunch I realized that the front left tire showed some uneven wear and it dawned that the car probably had a serious problem. I checked with the GM guys and then left the car at the service center for a thorough check up. Within 24 hours the diagnosis was finalized - the front left suspension strut was stuck and damaged for good. Fortunately they said they would replace it free of charge under warranty. The tire was damaged and had to be replaced - also to be done free by GM. It took about a week but the car was brought back today spanking new and sparkling. It drove as straight as an arrow and steering was so much easier. Well, cars too do let some illnesses I guess.
I'm thankful that inspite of my severe lack of auto and car knowledge I could find out the problem and everything could be repaired free of cost!

This is one of the best perk in being a doctor - when you get a thank you note from one of your patients. And when the thank you note is attached to a large pineapple cream cake, the joy is enormous. Ananthara came to us more than a year ago for a simple check up when I found out she also had delayed developmental milestones and a squint. Since then she has made immense progress and the mother has been faithfully bringing her for therapy and they have made a couple of visits to CMC.
Today was her second birthday and she came and gave us this beautiful (and delicious) cake.
Incidents like these really encourage me to continue to be more thoughtful and wise when treating the many children I see. And at the end of a tired day its just the perfect way to put a smile on my face!

Although I was on duty on Jan 1st we managed to go to church in the morning. The speaker was Freddy Joseph (I've already blogged about him a couple of times).
For the sermon he had chosen the story of Jesus calming the storm while his disciples were in the ship.
One of the highlights of his message was his thoughts on this verse
The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"
He said, " You can see the waves but cannot see the wind. Both of these obeyed Jesus - Jesus had control over both these elements. Similarly in our lives Jesus has control over the seen and unseen problems in our life"
A very simple truth made so obvious.
I hope that you allow Jesus to take care of both seen and unseen problems in your life.

If you would like to know more about Freddy Joseph visit his website @ http://www.freddyjoseph.com/

You're never too old to go to the zoo. A visit to the zoo re-ignited the child in me and brought back memories of us singing a cool song in Sunday School - 'If I were a Butterfly' So here is a collage of the animals we saw at the zoo to that familiar tune!
Enjoy Gods creation!!

Zoo: The Arignar Anna Zoological park, Vandalur, Chennai, India.

We'd just reached Chennai after the long drive from Trichy and just as we were cleaning up and taking some rest it started. My dad's tummy suddenly did a flip and he literally collapsed vomiting recurrently probably due to food poisoning. He could not even take any tablets or a sip of water and within an hour his blood pressure crashed to 60 systolic. My father-in-law and I decided to treat him at home and within a few minutes set up an IV line and rushed in some IV fluids and gave him some injections while the others rigged up a make-shift IV stand, etc. The BP improved to 100 systolic and after several hours the vomiting subsided after which my dad dozed off at around 3 AM. By morning he felt better and could drink fluids and even started eating
We had to leave for church and also to visit relatives while my dad decided to just rest at home. Fortunately he did not have any more problems and was literally itching for us to come back home to remove his IV line! By nightfall he was perfectly OK and seemed to be having a ravishing appetite! His BP was back to normal - 120 systolic. Yup - we gave him injections, IV fluids, medicines, etc - but I've rarely seem someone who vomited 10 times in an hour sitting and joking within 24 hours!

Trichy is not as boring as you think it is. It has some neat places you can hang out in. I thought I'll blog about a few of these places once in a while.
Christmas is just round the corner and a good Christian bookstore is a boon for some shopping.
OM bookhouse near Puthur junction is a great place for some Christian shopping. It's right opposite KMC hospital, but is tucked in a little so you may miss it. The place is not very large but well maintained, clean and the stuff is neatly arranged. Its got a HUGE collection of books, LOTS of music and some art, wall hangings, keychains etc. We had a pretty good time browsing through the store. The people were friendly and we bought some stuff.
Overall it was a very positive experience and we felt good!

It used to be a sleepy little town - Virudhachalam. We stayed there for 1 year in 1980 where I started my schooling. My grandparents had stayed there most of their life and I have lots of childhood memories from that town. And finally after about 27 years I finally got to visit Virudhachalam again. The opportunity dawned since we had to visit a closeby place (Neyveli) for a wedding. It was a 4 hour drive from Trichy to Neyveli. On our way back we stopped at Virudhachalam and finally managed to locate the old house - I couldn't even recognise it as it had been renovated in the front and a lot of shops had been built near the entrance. Once I stepped in the familiar study room, hall and staircase were the same. The huge area behind was still there although the number of trees were lesser. We then made our way to the school where I started my schooling! It felt great!
And then we dropped into the hospital where my grandfather worked - the Danish Mission Hospital. The hospital had unfortunately shut down and was overgrown with trees and bushes. Luckily we managed to find the watchman who knew my grandfather and he opened the hospital and showed us his photograph. The chapel inside was beautiful with a lovely cross at the altar - yet noone to use it!
It took us about an hour to do all this and at the end it brought memories flooding back to my heart.
Things had changed - the town was crowded, the house unrecognizable from the road, the hospital had closed and the school had become bigger. We were a closely knit family and it was wonderful staying in that once sleepy town. I'm glad that even though times have changed and we all seem spread far away in different parts of the world, God has created a togetherness and bond in us and spices it up with this opportunity to visit my childhood - again!!