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"GodSighting"

2011-01-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

Every now and then someone pops a word at you that simply sticks in your head and makes you think. I've been thrown a lot of these words that I have added to my personalised dictionary.
The latest such word that I was introduced to was "GodSighting". It was Jenni who brought up this word at the Bible study today and it simply stuck in my head!
GodSighting: Actively looking for God in our everyday life-happenings.
It's amazing how much God does in our lives everyday and we simply seem to mis it! Actively looking for the little things that God does just makes us more in awe of Him. Something as 'regular' as a walk back from work or a cooking session could unearth the hand of God in amazing ways. Look for these actively. God does not always blurt out at your face. "Benji. It's me that caused this to happen!" I feel humbled at the fact that He seems to prefer being anonymous for a lot of great stuff He does.
So open your eyes. Look for God in everything.
Be a GodSighter!!

My Ten Favorite Christmas Carols

2010-12-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

Christmas has dawned and I now have time to think about the songs I enjoyed the most this season!
I’ve been hearing them everywhere – in the shopping malls, on the radio, on TV and even over my iphone. So Here’s a countdown of my top 10 Christmas Carols. I’ll start at number 10 and then count down to no. 1!

Click here to read the list of my ten favorite Christmas carols

Birthday!

2009-10-12T06:54:00.000-07:00

Nice birthday - parents and parents-in-law at home, buffet dinner yesterday, special cake, plenty of phonecalls, FB messages, orkut scraps, SMS... and then... lone pediatrician at the hospital, 50 patients in OPD, 5 kids with seizures, a twin delivery, acting anesthetist for an ortho procedure, on call, 2 kids post-op and 2 kids planned for surgery.... loving it! It can't get more exciting, right!

Swallowed!

2009-09-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

- Parents watch eight month month old child play with a toy phone from a distance.
- Child slams the phone and breaks it.
- Parents recover most of it including a battery.
- The night is uneventful.
- In the morning they discovered 2 more discolored batteries - when the baby poops!

This child was very lucky that he also had a diarrhea and the batteries came out before they could cause any damage to his gut!
This was the perfect recipe for disaster - a toy with small parts in the hands on an infant. Not everyone ends up as lucky as this child!

As you can see the two swallowed batteries were quite discolored and almost rusty!

Class Captain

2009-09-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Just like the dozens of times before Harini came smiling and bubbly to OPD. This time however she was in her school uniform as she had come straight to the OPD after an exam. She made a little fuss as we took her to the treatment and winced as I poked her hand for the IV line. She sat and smiled as I slowly injected the medicine and then some saline to flush and she was ready to go back.
It was then that I noticed the smart badge on her uniform which said Class Captain.
Nothing very unusual - until you realise that Harini is being treated for Acute Leukemia (Blood Cancer) and today is her last injection. She was diagnosed at CMC 2 years ago and after the initial treatment was referred to us for continuing her chemotherapy injections. She has survived the leukemia, febrile neutropenia, baldness, anaphylaxis, chicken pox and thrombocytopenia in the last 2 years. Her family was thrilled that hopefully today would be the last ever injection she has!
I really admire the support she has received from her parents and school and the resilience and courage she herself has shown.
The Class Captain badge means a lot to her, her parents and to me!
They often tell me to continue to pray for her and I hope that you too will say a word of prayer as you read this blog.
And in case you ever doubted it - CANCER IS CURABLE!

Three Kings Store

2009-08-31T09:33:00.000-07:00

Every time I need to choose a Christian gift item i either have to go to the local Christian store here or order it by ebay from the US and ship it. I've always hoped that I could find a store right here in India with the kind of gifts I find on ebay but not have to wait for it to be shipped from the US with expensive shipping costs. Finally I found one. My friend Praveen just started an online store with Christian goodies ranging from bracelets to candle stands at the Three Kings Store. i had a long chat with him and I hope the store does well. Browse through it and you'll see why I'm excited!
Three Kings Store - India's First Premium Online Christian Gift Store.

Cracked mirror

2009-08-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

We had to travel about 150 KM to Sirkazhi today for the reception. I decided that it would be better that Venkatesh drove, especially as the return would be late in the night. The road was a narrow road that was winding. In an hour an oncoming car came really close and although venkatesh swerved off the road the rear-view mirrors hit and I heard a loud noise. We stopped and on inspection found that only the mirror had cracked and the whole assembly and car didn't even have a scratch. The other car didn't bother to stop! Just a few inches could have seen worse results!
The return journey at night was safe but quite scary through the narrow roads.

The Rush

2009-08-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

After witnessing the beautiful wedding and reception we had to make a mad rush to the Bus Stand straight from the wedding reception. The taxi reached late and we actually walked all the way to the main road to catch it. The 40 minute trip to the bus stop was crazy! I had to close my eyes and hold on tight as the taxi driver drove like mad. We reached in one piece and on time. Still sweating and white-knuckled, I boarded my bus amidst a noisy crowd of humanity. I was very lucky to get on a bus as all buses were full and the only reason I got a seat was because I had booked the ticket 3 days ago! I normally never book a ticket when i travel alone, but this time something (or maybe someONE) inspired me to book the ticket and that was the only reason I could actually get back to Trichy without a problem!
And if you're wondering how bad the crowd was, here is a teaser - this dark video shows people trying to get onto another bus... while I was safely sitting inside 'my' bus!

'Making' news - Swine Flu

2009-08-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

As you know Swine Flu has been making headlines all over the world. The news channels and newspapers are going overboard as they try to use the little they know to increase their TRPs and come out on top.
Today we had a taste of how blasphemously inaccurate and blatantly false even top newspapers are. We saw this article about a child called Tharika. you can click on the clipping enclosed to read the full article
Very emotional article! The only problem is that there is absolutely no truth at all. How do I know? Tharika is my patient and i am treating her (along with Praburam). Here are the facts:
1. She was admitted with fever on the 11th and not the 10th. (The closest the newspaper ever got to the truth!!)
2. She was never suspected to have swine Flu and had no symptoms even remotely suggestive of swine flu.
3. She was never sent to the Government Hospital - in fact the parents have never been there at all!
4. She was never tested for swine Flu and was never isolated either here or in the Government Hospital. She has been in the general paediatric ward at our hospital.
5. No tests were ever done in Chennai or even sent to Chennai.
6. She was confirmed to have typhoid based on tests done in the laboratory doen at our hospital!
7. The family faced more problems after the publication of this news item!
No-one contacted our hospital, me, Praburam, the family, the government hospital, the lab in Chennai, the health authorities or any doctor at any time about this patient. I wonder what their 'sources' are.
There was an immediate response and we had an inspection by a team of doctors and health personnel from the Government. As usual the truth triumphed and we had no problems at all.
I'll end this blog entry with a clear warning - "Do not believe or act on anything the newspapers and news channels say".
And if you're really looking for something to read that says the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth try reading the BIBLE

Pray for India!

2009-08-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

Its been a tumultuous year for India. There's recession, political confusion, corruption, violence, terrorism, immorality, pollution and impatience lurking everywhere. And I almost forgot to add swine flu to that list! This Independence Day I had some time to ponder about where the country is headed. To be frank, experiences everyday and watching the news daily makes me really wonder if there is any hope at all. 'Unity in Diversity' seems to be an old-fashioned saying that has lost its meaning and charm. I wonder if we can even claim to be secular. Is the real enemy across the border or actually within us? Will there aver be a day when women are treated with the dignity they deserve? Will the keepers of the law abide by the law? Will Health for All just be a slogan chanted and never a reality?
So many questions. I wonder if we can ever change anything. I finally concluded that each of us is not meant to change everything. We can change some things some of the times, but not all things all the time.
And yes - the only hope for every person in this great country is JESUS. I still believe it!!
"God, Give us the grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed, Courage
to change the things which should be changed,
And the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
I hope that my ramblings make sense...
PRAY FOR INDIA!

The end of the service

2009-08-02T05:51:00.000-07:00

It was a frustrating evening at church. I was on call and kept getting phonecalls during the service - all of them minor issues that could be settled over the phone. I missed most of the message and the worship. I decided to leave as soon as the message was over so i could rush back to the hospital just to make sure everything was OK. But Becky decided we'd stay till the very end and speak to the pastor. Grudgingly I obliged. At the end of the service after we had a pleasant chat with the pastor and his parents a lady walked up to me and asked me to see a child who was a little sick. The whole family had been saved from the brink of suicide just a week ago and today one of the children fell sick - she was vomiting and quite dehydrated.
I had to admit her and she needed IV fluids and also some injections. She got better and was discharged after 2 days.
If i had simply left the church early, i would not have been able to see this child or treat her! Thank God for a wife who ensured I stayed till the end of the service, a lady and other church members who had helped save a family.
Although I could not hear the sermon today i felt I learned so much more at church - just by staying till the end of the service!

OC, BC, JC

2009-07-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

Kevin shared this in church today. He narrated how he got admission to PSG College which initially seemed really difficult. part of the reason was the reservation for communities called BC (Backward Community), FC (Forward Community), OC (Other Community) and so on.
To cut the story short, beyond his expectations he got into college!
He ended testimony saying this:
"OC, BC, FC... whatever.... I belong to JC (Jesus Christ)!"
Woah! i finally got a partner for my Christian Punchline book!!

Helpful child!

2009-07-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

A very enthusiastic and helpful child I saw in my clinic the other day - wanted to help me examine himself! So there he is - grabbing my stethoscope and placing it in the right places!
Left me wondering - do you really need to go to Medical College to learn how to examine patients?

A Godly punchline!

2009-06-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the most awesome truths just blurt out of my mouth and I wonder where it came from. Divine intervention!!
We were at a family get-together. As we were still the newly married couple (self proclaimed!) B and me were the center of attention. A rather tricky question was thrown at me: "So Jeyanth, when it all started, who made the choice first? Did you choose B or did B choose you?".
The answer came out in 0.00026 seconds!
"Actually.... God chose us first!"
Blink of an eye and an awesome truth dawned on everyone.
Such words of wisdom inspire me to write a new book on Christian Punchlines! Wish me all the best!!

Message in a Tshirt

2009-06-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

These local Tshirt companies don;t have any idea what they are printing! Most of the time the children I see in OPD have some gibberish written on their Tshirt - half of it unreadable or making no sense at all with lots of typos etc.
I was surprised when this 3 year old child landed up in OPD with this Tshirt advising safe driving tips! I don't think he had any idea what it said and probably could never drive a truck - but hey! It's never too young to spread the message!
Click on the image for a larger view, but if you still can't read it here's what it says:
"I will drive a maxi truck.
Stop.
Drive Slowly.
Look Signal.
Be Careful.
Blow Horn."
I can't add much to that except to tell you - "Drive safely!"

Rejoice TV

2009-06-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

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!!

A musical treat

2009-05-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

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!

Beautiful sentence

2009-05-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Grace - followed up

2009-05-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Magic is...

2009-05-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

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!

Air, chyle... and hope?

2009-03-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

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)

The threat

2009-02-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

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!

The uncertainty of life - more follow up

2009-02-10T06:56:00.000-08:00

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.

The drag

2009-01-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

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!

A thank you note

2009-01-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

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!

The winds and the waves

2009-01-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

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/

A visit to the zoo (If I were a butterfly)!

2008-12-22T06:19:00.000-08:00

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.

60 to 120 in 24 hours!

2008-12-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

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!

Discovering Trichy

2008-12-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

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!

A visit to my childhood

2008-12-08T05:06:00.000-08:00

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!!

1000 dollar baby.... almost!

2008-11-18T05:05:00.000-08:00

Sangeetha's baby was a extremely preterm baby with respiratory distress syndrome.
Within 2 hours of age it was clear she was going to worsen and hence we decided to ventilate her and give her survanta - a special medicine given directly to her lungs. The survanta is 8 milliliters, is given in 5 minutes and costs a whopping 10000 indian rupees. Thankfully she did well after that and within a few days was off the ventilator. After carefully nursing her and letting her feed, today finally she was fit enough to go home. Her total bill including the ICU stay and the ventilation came to about Rs. 20000. Add the survanta charges and what was spent was about 750 US $... almost a thousand dollar baby - thats about the most expensive baby we have had at our hospital!!

Meditate-a-minute

2008-11-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

On my website Addicted2Jesus, I have a section called Meditate-a-Minute. Its a series of short articles and some stories that I have written over the years.
It's been pretty dormant for some time and i decided to finally re-awaken it.
For starters, i first installed a script so that surfers can submit articles and even comment on the articles. So that makes it more interactive!
And now to get down to adding more content and newer articles.
You can read the articles at addicted2jesus - meditate a minute and let me know what you think!

Evan Almighty

2008-11-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

I saw clips from this movie a few months ago in church (yes.. in church!)
Its a modern day Noahs Ark comedy remake with a message. You can read the review for Evan Almighty here.
My favorite part of the movie is this:
There is a great scene, just past the mid-point of the movie, where Evan’s wife (Joan) who has just left Evan, speaks with God posing as a waiter in a restaurant.
Joan: What is the story about, then? The ark?
God: Well, I think it’s a love story about believing in each other. You know, the animals showed up in pairs. They stood by each other, side by side, just like Noah and his family. Everybody entered the ark side by side.
Joan: But my husband says God told him to do it. What do you do with that?
God: Sounds like an opportunity. Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other? Well, I got to run. A lot of people to serve. Enjoy.
The reason this conversation is so important is that in the beginning of the movie Joan tells Evan that the kids prayed for a dog, but she prayed that they would become closer as a family.
At this point she reverses her decision to leave him because he is so weird and come together to sort out the ARK!
Many times in life we want the answer to our prayer be very straightforward and thrust in our hands - and we miss the opportunity to really enjoy the pleasure of answered prayer!
You can see the clip of this dialogue from Evan Almighty here.

A blow to the head (x3)

2008-11-05T08:09:00.000-08:00

Part of the profession is to deal with a situation when the unexpected happens. A lot of times I'm left wondering if I could rewind those few minutes that made the difference between a well child and a sick one.
I'll briefly tell you about children who came to the hospital with injuries.This blog post is not for the faint-hearted.
1. A 4 year old girl was playing on the balcony of the first floor at home when she tripped over the low parapet wall and went plunging head first to the ground. She was brought with no heart rate or breathing to the ER. Inspite of attempted resuscitation she did not survive.
2. A 6 year old girl was sitting behind her dad on the moped when they both fell down. The girl had a fractured skull and was paralysed on her left side. They took her to another hospital after coming to our ER and doing the CT scan. Fortunately, although she had a fractured skull and a blood clot in her brain, she recovered completely and the neurosurgeon called me a couple of days later to tell me she was OK.
3. A 2 month old infant was lying in his cot when he rolled over and fell down about 3-4 feet. He was brought with a fractured skull but was otherwise well.

All three are accidents - but accidents that could have been easily prevented: a higher parapet wall, a helmet, cot with siderails, some attention and supervision is all it would have taken.
Looking after children is a full time job. There are no shortcuts to safety and supervision. Just like any disease, with regards to accidents too prevention is better than cure. As doctors we cannot perform miracles - although at times we are left wondering how a child recovers!!
Accidents among children are fast becoming a leading cause of death, disability and hospitalisations both in the west (where more statistics seem to be available) and now in India too.
But I'm not here to post statistics and graphs. I'm just here to drive home a simple message: Take care of your child - even at home and when you are with your child!

Sick children and puppets

2008-11-01T06:04:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest blessings in my pediatric OPD are the cartoons, puppets and colorful pictures in it.
I'd blogged about the transformation of the Pediatric OPD about a year ago.
Everyday its amazing how children grab the toys, stare around in awe and squeal with joy. Of course there are still those who bawl and bawl and shed a liter of tears!
This short mobile video clip shows a child with a chest infection having fun in the OPD.

Apologies for the poor quality of the video and the glaring window in the background - you can still see the childs glowing face!

Whazzat @ Trichy

2008-10-23T03:44:00.000-07:00

Saw this note on a car in Trichy

(Click the image for a larger pic)
It shows an advocate/lawyer symbole (which means that the driver was a lawyer), below which is a bold logo that states "DICTATOR". My interpretation?
I always thought that for a lawyer the Law was his word.
This lawyer tipped it around - His WORD is now the LAW!
Howzzat @ Trichy!

Fully licensed!

2008-10-21T03:20:00.000-07:00

I finally got my Permanent 4-wheeler driving license today.
Getting the license was not difficult - a couple of months ago I got my learners license after enrolling at a driving school and signing a few forms.
Today, along with a few others from the driving school I drove down to the RTO office 10 km away and managed to finish off the formalities and the driving test.
This was another day that God showed in subtle ways how much he cared.
For one, a person who had come last week told me that the crowd the previous week was a lot and the queues were much longer.
Also, the tests are conducted in the open - and in the even of rain everyone gets sent back! Although it threatened to rain, ultimately what we had was cool climate. It drizzled a little on the way back!
So finally the bright re "L" board can come off the car!

Driving with a gorilla!

2008-10-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

We'd given in the car to do the repair work and spent the week using the Kinetic Honda. Unfortunately the work couldn't be finished by the weekend and that meant the weekend without the car - and a wedding to attend 10 miles away! The service center promised to send a car for our use for the weekend and saturday saw us with a UVA - their test car.
Pretty cool eh?
Even cooler if you realised that the car had a huge gorilla painted on the sides (as a part of their 'Incredibly Spacious' ad!).
It was fun - and funny. Everywhere we stopped kids jumped in glee while others gave us a wide grin. No harm done. We attended the wedding in ease and comfort.
Trust me - God provides. And some times he injects a touch of humour into it!!

Showers of blessing

2008-10-12T03:26:00.000-07:00

It all started at midnight when a shower of guests landed up for a midnight weekend party and we were all showered with fried chicken, coke, french fries, banana milk shake and cake.
At lunch it showered prawn curry and fried rice.
The afternoon saw the first showers of rain that I had seen in Trichy in a few months!
The evening saw an incredible shower of blessings - at church when we had a special prayer and then we met the pastor - an incredibly personal experience that is hard to put in words!
It was an awesome way to end the day - few days have been as exotic as today was.
yp - and today was my birthday!

800 to 1600 grams in 60 days

2008-10-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

Grace delivered her baby 2 months ago. The baby was all of 800 grams! She was one of the smallest babies we have ever managed. Against all odds she literally cruised her way out of nursery with just minor problems - some jaundice, a touch of oxygen, a blood transfusion. She literally grew in front of our eyes and today is fit for discharge! Just another time in my life when I realise that even with very little help God's little babies have their own way of facing the world! So here is the little one - in an oversized sweater looking cute and ready to face the world.

Character analysis!

2008-10-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ever been to one of those fancy weighing machines in railway stations that tell you more than just your weight? At the railway station I was kinda 'led' into checking out my weight in one of these 'enlightening' machines.
This one spews out a card with your weight, a character analysis and a filmstars picture. So what did mine show?
You are shy, patient, sensitive and tender.
I almost fell off in shock!
And the filmstar? Salman Khan - I could feel my biceps bulge underneath my shirt sleeve!!
We laughed about this the whole way back home.
And my weight - you really thought I'd blog it??!!

In the pink of health

2008-10-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist sharing this pic on my blog! This sight greeted me when I entered the Nursery. For some reason the babies on one side had pink dresses and pink sheets. I found it pretty cute. Click the picture to view a larger photo.

Sony K510i reclaimed!

2008-09-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

Manufacturing company: Sony Ericsson
Model number: k510i
Date of purchase: October 2006
Date of theft: May 2008
Last date of prayer: June 2008
Date of recovery: September 2008
Status: perfect condition - evry picture, every SMS, every contact and every scratch preserved!

Becker kept telling us that we would definitely find the mobile again, but in true human style we stopped praying after some time.
In true God style Jesus answered the long forgotten prayer in a way that blew our minds.
The mobile was returned to Athai and Mama in Kodaikanal a week ago.
Its a long story - the person who took it, stole it in a fit of anger and spent 110 days feeling something gnawing on his conscience.
Today I finally got it in my hands and the thrill was amazing.
I just hope that our praise will not be as short as our prayer request!!
Jeyanth and Becky

A question of affordability

2008-09-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Today had several things that were out of the ordinary. I was alone in OPD and we had a record 51 children who came to the OPD. I had to do a bone marrow and did it alone at around 4 PM - after I had a hurried lunch. The ward was so full that I had to shift the stable children to other wards.
But what I remember most is R - a chirpy 6 year old girl who has a deformed right arm from birth. She had come to us 3 weeks ago with fever and anemia and since we suspected Leukemia we had sent her to CMC for confirmatory tests. She came back with a confirmed diagnosis of Leukemia (Blood cancer) to continue the chemotherapy at our hospital.
The father had bought the medicines for the week and the child was ready to get the drugs through her IV central line (a special line that can be kept for a month to deliver her chemotherapy).
Just before I started, the father made a request that baffled me. "Doctor, please remove the IV line and we'll go back home." His reason sounded simple, "I can't afford the treatment. It lasts three years and there is no 100% guarantee."
But why the sudden change of mind, I wondered. Was it a genuine question of affordability? Was it the fact that she would be a burden to them? Was it the fact that she was a girl - and had a deformed arm? Were they trying to evade the huge responsibility?
I don't think I will ever find out the true answer. I spoke to him in detail laying down facts, other experiences and the fact that the present course of medicines were already bought. He rallied back and forth, almost leaving the ward before he decided that we would give the next weeks chemotherapy before making any more decisions.
She got her 6 hour infusion, an IV push and an IM jab and left at 4 PM.
Over the next few days we will lay down the options available for them - including that of free treatment in selected centers, government and charity funding available, etc.
I'm really not sure what they will decide - or maybe the father has already decided.
I don't think I will ever be able to truly put my feet in the father's or the child's shoes and feel their pain, confusion and dilemna. I just pray that whatever decision they make will be a genuine decision - not out of any bias or out of their inabilities.
Is it a question of affordability?
I wonder....

Migraine

2008-09-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

My presentation on Migraine almost caused me a major headache. Everything fell apart in the last minute and then miraculously came back together in the last second!
I had finished preparing the presentation about an hour early and was ready to go. Unfortunately the CD burner was giving errors and my USB drive was in the car. As B was just finishing her presentation preparation too and was about to burn it on a CD I called her up and said I would email it to her so she could add mine also.
The email reached her in 5 minutes.
Blackout - total power cut!
Luckily B had a laptop and the battery would last 1 hour. She could burn the CD. I got ready to leave after shutting down my desktop.
Setback - she had not yet downloaded my attachment and the internet did not work without power!
In the meantime, I retrieved my USB drive from the car and restarted my computer (hooked up to the UPS), and hurriedly tried to transfer the presentation to the USB drive.
Disaster - just when I opened the folder and copied he file the battery ran out on my UPS and the comp died on me. I had needed just a few more seconds.
Just when I ran out of ideas my silent prayers received enlightenment and the power turned back on.
I hurriedly turned my desktop on and stared at the blue screen of death - CRASHED!!
I restarted the system again and after some brief hiccups Windows opened and behaved itself. Quickly I transferred the file to my USB drive and scooted to the library. I was a little late but well armed - with my USB drive.
The presentation went on without a hitch and did not show any signs of the last minute damasha that had occurred.
I wonder who is in such perfect control even through all these technological confusions and madnesses. I guess you know Who!
He lives!

Highway to Chennai

2008-08-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

Stuff the bags in, turn on the ignition, fill the tank up and .... er.... don't step on it. The Chevy guys had warned me not to go beyond 80 kmph for the first 2000 KM!
Even with this restriction the drive was a dream! The roads were really good (in the daytime). Ajay had arranged for a driver to drive home the Maruti and he took the lead.
The U-VA handled itself perfectly on the highway and the drive was very comfortable. Even though there were several heavy vehicles and short detours at unexpected places we had absolutely no problems. The ribbon announcing that our car was new and the "L" sticker (I still have a learners license) ensures that other drivers kept their distance from me!!
We stopped for breakfast and lunch and after a brief stint at getting lost in Chennai reached home safe! The whole 8 hours were superb - the Ac kept us cool, the ride quality was excellent and music entertained us throughout!
So my first highway trip was a dream come true! The whole 8 hours were superb - the Ac kept us cool, the ride quality was excellent and music entertained us throughout! All this in our very own car - something that God gave us out of seemingly nothing!!

Incredibly ambitious, Incredibly spacious and Incredibly 'God'ious

2008-08-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

(Warning: Incredibly long blog entry coming up!)
It all started off as an inkling of a thought all the way at the back of our heads when my dad lent his Maruti800 to us for 3 months. I discovered that I could actually drive it. Soon the luxury of 4 wheels sank in and 2 wheels (aka my Kinetic Honda) started gathering dust and risked becoming obsolete. Could we actually buy a new car? The research and calculations started. Unfortunately car companies seem to be producing more new cars everyday! We started off with a Santro in mind and naturally the i10 appealed more - almost clinched it for us once the i10 kappa range rolled out. Er... how about the Getz (C and A had one and it was great!). Wait a minute - the Swift costs the same as a Getz! Hmm... a Ford Fusion is just a little more... maybe a SX4. Maybe we can accommodate a Honda CRV. Hey - isn't Audi launching the Jetta soon?!
Yup - we were ambitious. But for practical purposes everything beyond the Getz and Swift was only worth dreaming about (but I don't wanna delete those dreams from my blog as yet!)
The Hyundai i10 seemed a winner - we simply had to decide between the red and the blue i10. We actually paused right in the middle of the road once to ogle at a red i10 parked at the side. The decision seemed to have been made.
Since the Chevrolet Spark was an option (although it was a 'small' hatchback), I called up my friend Ajay who owns a Chevrolet showroom. He introduced us to three letters - UVA. The Chevrolet Aveo UVA was more expensive than the i10 and also more spacious - slightly cheaper than the Getz and the Swift.
So now the recalculations and the rethinking began. Looking at our Bank balance I gave up all my dreaming and started cleaning up my Kinetic Honda again.
with less than a month to go before we returned the Maruti800 to my dad I pulled out my bank account balances and my calculator again. Somehow it seemed possible!
The 3 letters (alphanumeric) "i10" in my mind were replaced by three others - "UVA" as I felt it was more unique, more spacious and also that Ajay could give us a better deal. Convincing Becky about anything other than a i10 was the next thing.
Finally we drove 15 kilometers to the Chevy showroom. When Becky saw the UVA her jaw dropped! The 'wow' expression on her face meant the world to me and even before I got behind the wheel of the test vehicle both of us felt a peace and joy that only increased after the 4 kilometer drive I took!
I also drove the Spark just for the kick of it.
The next week saw me cruise around town in a Swift and a brand new Hyundai i10 - but they were just formalities. The "UVA" had smitten us big time!

Now the money part. Haggling with the banks about loan rates was new to me but I successfully inked a good loan deal with HDFC bank.
The next part was putting all the money I had in my HDFC bank account - SBI gave us some heart arrhythmias but to cut a long, tense story short it was done!
Finally the big question - could we actually get the loan approved and the car delivered (after registration) in 5 days flat so we could take it to Chennai?
I was pretty sure that the same God who produced the possibility of actually owning a car from thin air could do this for us.
Deadline: Friday!
Monday - The loan papers were submitted. Ajay reserved The UVA 1.2LS in Beckys favorite color, Icy Blue, even though another buyer wanted to buy it straight away!
Tuesday - The loan was approved. The check would be ready tomorrow.
Wednesday - The Check was ready and would be sent to the Car Dealers. Ajay and the Chevy guys prepped the car for us - fixing the music system, fog lights and basic accessories.
Thursday - Hiccup! The cash for registration of the car was to be paid directly. Ajay sent Napolean zooming across to our house and we gave him the cash, but it was too late - the RTO was closed. Thank God we had friday as a buffer!
Friday - Everything was ready! Ajay agreed to take cheques and that saved us the trouble of carrying cash around.
It was a happy day! Everything went smoothly and the payments were done. The car (Our Car!) looked even better than when we first saw it. I did a check of everything in the car and after a word of prayer I started the engine and we drove out - in our very own Chevrolet Aveo U-VA 1.2LS. It was a dream! We even managed to get the license plates fixed and make a trip to Pastor's house to have a word of prayer.
And did I tell you about the dinner miracle? Busy between a few patients I had to see, the license plates and packing for our Chennai trip, dinner seemed like a far cry! At 9.30 we went to pastor Paul Moses house to have a "short time of prayer" for the car. And guess what? As soon as we entered his father guided us to the dining table - a church member had given them loads of Biriyani as it was his birthday and there was plenty for us! I almost cried at how much God loves Becky and me!!
Tired we returned home and showed off the car to the other who were bowled over especially by the space and the awesome color (Beckys choice!)
It was incredible! The feeling of owning your own car when the only things you have ever driven till a few months ago was a BSA Street Cat and a Kinetic Honda! Tomorrow I take my maiden highway trip - to Chennai. I wonder what I will dream of when I close my eyes tonight!
Incredible ambitious: Last year when Ajay told us about the Spark being sold for a discount, I laughed at him. Today I bought a bigger car from the same guy!!
Incredibly Spacious: The Chevrolet Aveo U-VA 1.2LS. Our very own set of wheels!
Incredibly "God"ious: The best part! God simply guided us through it all - the incredibly tough decision of choosing a car was delightfully simple and the incredibly difficult task of arranging the finances and loan was a breeze! The incredibly complicated exercise of getting a new car delivered was made easy - thanks to a godsent person called Ajay!

Everlasting God

2008-08-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

After weeks of postponing and very little practice Becky and I gave a special song at church today - "Everlasting God" (originally by Brenton Brown).
The song was special to the two of us as it was the first song we had ever sung together. You can see me blog about that by clicking here
The song was a blessing to the congregation and it also encouraged Becky and Me to take more active part in church and ministry - something we have not been doing very well!
Click here if you would like to see Brenton Brown talk about what inspired him to write the song "Everlasting God" and teach you how to play the song on the guitar.

Hope you are encouraged by this song. Here are the lyrics:
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
Wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord (2)
Our God You reign forever
Our Hope our strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint You won't grow weary
You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles

Exchange transfusion x 2

2008-08-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

We've done it once in the past 2 years and this weekend we did it twice! Exchange transfusions have been rare at our hospital, but yesterday I ended up with a neonate with Rh iso-immunisation and hemolytic jaundice and did an exchange transfusion. Betsy helped out and the procedure went on well even though Praburam was not around.
Unfortunately today the jaundice started increasing again and Betsy also was not around. I ended up doing the second exchange transfusion alone with the help of nurses. Both times we did it late in the night, but thankfully things went on well and the baby had no problems!
Praburam and I have always been saying that there are no exchange transfusions around - but this weekend I went solo, did a double exchange transfusion and everyone was still intact!
My mind shudders when I think of all that could have gone wrong and am thankful for Gods watchful eyes during the procedure and after!

Shifting webhosts

2008-08-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

As a cost saving venture I decided to try out a new host called midpulse. I've never heard of them before but they seemed to have a decent uptime and some really low cost hosting. I shifted addicted2jesus.com without much of a problem but am running into problems transferring christian-traffic.com. The initial problems was with the mysql database server settings which I succesfully changed. The links section is working perfectly fine, but the traffic exchange is down. the script seems installed but I cant adjust the admin settings at all.
My only option is now to trust out a new script and I hope the cost balances out. My old host graciously adjusted the last payment I made for the only site still left with him - redeem4ads.com
My lack of tech brains is pretty obvious but even through this great limitation everything seems within control! I'm still waiting for a new traffic exchange script - have messaged a few people to get one!
If you're reading this please say a silent prayer for the sites!

Protection

2008-08-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

I received this cute cartoon by email and felt it was blogworthy. Click the image to open it the full size:

...and you question God -'why me?'...
always look at the bigger picture....

1000 kilometers, 1 week, 2 cancelled tickets

2008-08-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

That how much distance Becky covered. And 640 of those kilometers were done in 24 hours - to Chennai and back! The 6 days without her saw me missing her like crazy, but neatly packed cooked food in the refrigerator and constant phonecalls ensures my body, mind and soul never went hungry. Once again we were grateful to God for protectionon the roads and the rails (especially after the series of bomb-blasts in ahmedabad etc). Luckily I am not on duty this weekend and we can catch up on the rest we both need.

... and God created woman!

2008-07-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

I received this little snippet today and felt it was blogworthy.
"The woman came out of a man's rib - not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal, under his arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved."
... and guess who I was thinking of when I read the last bit!

Free Downhere album for you!

2008-07-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

My last post about Downhere was a couple of years ago. I still love them, but never got hold of any of their newer albums... till today. I literally stumbled onto a legal copy of the "Wide Eyed and Mystified" album from Musichristian. The album has one of my all-time favorites "A better way". I'll skip the suspense and take you straight to the download link:
Click here to Download the album "Wide-Eyed and Mystified" by Downhere for free!

I'll leave you with the lyrics for "A Better Way" by Downhere:
I'm not alone, I really believe
You never go, You never leave
Here and now, You always stay
“I love you” could not be said a better way

It's everything You've promised
There's no greater love than this
From prophets until today
A man laying down His life for His friends
Your sacrifice has spoken, You gave everything
And “I love you” could not be said
A better way

I am forgiven, I clearly see
It's why You came to do all you did for me
Trading earth with heaven, You took my place
“I love you” could not be said
A better way

Because You redeem, I know what's to come
Everything I could lose here, You've already won
So You have my surrender, with passion obey
“I love you” could not be said
A better way...

You can read my older post about downhere here

Bengaluru

2008-07-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

After the incident-prone trip to Bangalore, the rest of the time turned out to be awesome!
Hephzibah had planned out a lot of stuff well. Sunday morning saw us in church. and after that we were stuffing up hot chocolate doughnuts, mint coffee and more down our throats before we came back home.
The kids then went crazy in the balcony till we were all breathless - I must have lost 20 years playing with them and becoming a kid myself!
Lunch was an elaborate affair and the afternoon saw us resting. The evening and night was a time of catching up and yak-yakking as we traded all kinds of stories before we crashed out for the night.
Monday saw us at the mall - the colorful displays and loud discounts unfortunately did not tempt us to buy anything!! We ended up taking a computerized charcoal sketch of ourselves which was beautiful!
Becky and I had a long walk in the evening through the beautiful Ferns Paradise where Hephzibah and Clement stayed and suddenly it was time to leave again!
We had lamb chops for dinner and at 11.30 PM boarded the KPN bus and took the uneventful trip back to Trichy - back to work!!
It was another blessed weekend and we had fun, fellowship, rest, long chats and plenty of kid-time! Thank you God for blessing our lives with such beautiful people and beautiful times!

Stranded .... almost

2008-07-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Trichy - Karur - Namakkal - Dharamapuri - Krishnagiri - Salem - Hosur - Bangalore . 8 hours. An air-conditioned KPN volvo bus
That was the combination and everything seemed set for a great weekend at Bangalore with my cousins and their 2 children.
The hissing started at Krishnagiri (Don't worry - this is not the Snakes on the Bus sequel to a famous movie!) and soon we were parked on the side of the road surrounded by trees and fields with the conductor underneath the bus and the driver on his mobile. After nearly an hour they decided that the bus was ride-worthy and we made it to Salem where they had a team ready to check out the huge bus. Half an hour later everything was fine and we were zipping away to Bangalore. We reached more than 2 hours late - at 11 PM, but Hephzibah had us picked up and after a late night dinner we tucked ourselves into bed to dream about the next 48 hours in Bangalore!
Travelling long distances often reminds us of the problems that occur and how they get OK - thanks to God for always watching over us!

The Power of Your Love

2008-07-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

I've been experimenting with shooting a few videos on the digital camera. I shot these in Kumarakom when we saw nature at its best. Sunsets, backwaters, beaches, trees, clouds, water - these video clips were taken at a place called Kumarakom. Relaxing in natures lap away from work, stress and tension made us realize the true beauty of Gods creation! The video is set to the song "Power of Your Love" by Darlene Zschech and has the lyrics. Be blessed!

For more videos visit:
http://christianvideo.co.cc

Baasha

2008-06-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

So how long does it take to prepare a 15 minute drama which is supposed to be the highlight of the Hospital Day celebrations, includes sound effects, lots of props, plenty of comedy, has interwoven movie dialogues and pure slapstick comedy. Two late nights of script-writing, scouring around for some props, google searches for dialogues and soundeffects and one practise session later we had everything worked out.
The screams of voices, applause, whistles and cheers that greeted us when we walked on stage and continued throughout this comedy skit was proof that we did well. Noone expected the doctors to let down their hair, throw caution to the winds and let loose on stage with this kind of comedy and fun! Even the pastor and bishop had a fun time.
We did present some parallels to our hospital and the response was great!
We represented our boss using a popular movie character called Baasha (played by Rajinikanth) - the cheers when th title music was played and I walked on stage dressed like boss .... see it in this video clip!

640 kilometers

2008-06-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

A cricket match, 400 meter sprint, lime soda at FSM, 2 nights on the bus, 640 kilometers, a home-check, Ashraya, a ride to locate Mr. Ayyappan, a wedding reception, 2 hours through congested chennai roads, a mad rush to the bus stop (made miraculously easy in a luxury bus) and back to Trichy - that sums up the weekend. My age finally seems to be catching up - I have vague body pains and actually felt a little tired when I was at work today. A few hours of extra sleep in the afternoon and I was back in form, just waiting for Becky to join me tomorrow - that will spruce me up big time!
Wonder how God gives humans strength for so much action - guess the creator knows best!!!

Howzzat!!

2008-06-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

Cricket under the blazing sun - that was the highlight of today. It was a part of the hospital sports celebration (in view of the hospital day coming up).
The action packed 12 over match saw me taking an impressive catch (even the tree branches couldn't stop me), being the batsman with the highest strike rate ( 2 runs off 2 balls = strike rate of 100%), help run out Ben and also end up on the losing side. The hero of the match was Rajendran - the single over he bowled ensured we lost the match as the ball disappeared out of the ground several times!
Other activities made sure we were all well-dehydrated at the end of it all and managed a trip to FSM for some Lime Soda.
Howzzat for an eventful day!

Potters Hand

2008-06-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

I've seen clay being fashioned into pottery on TV several times. This was my first live demo. We saw this in Kumarakom by a local potter. It was much more breathtaking seeing the real thing! It took about 10 minutes to transform the ugly lump of clay into beautiful pottery - deft touches of his hand, careful molding, a flick of his wrist and the transformation was complete. Each touch made it more complete and more beautiful. I couldn't help but think of the bible verse
Isaiah 64:8
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
And the song that sprang to my mind was Potters Hand
"Take me, Mould me, use me, fill me
I give my life to the Potter's hand
Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me
I give my life to the Potter's hand"
Here's a video of the potter at work!

To download the WMV file
http://www.mediafire.com/?mcd9pmvihdz
For more such videos
http://www.christianvideo.co.cc/

Kumarakom cruise

2008-06-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Vacation time!! Finally Becky and I were on the train to Kottayam and were picked up at the station by a cab and late in the morning we reached Kumarakom - the enchanting backwaters of Kerala. What followed was an amazing mixture of luxury, a feeling of royalty, merging one with nature and hours of just ogling at nature.
Imagine 28 cottages spread over 17 acres of garden, canals and bridges. And then imagine - we were the only people there. We were treated like royalty! The cottages were quaint, the gardens lush green (in the middle of summer!) and the pool inviting. We felt like a King and a Queen with people to serve us food of our choice, clean up the room and help us!
Besides the relaxing time the highlight of our trip was discovering the beauty of Gods creation - water, clouds, the sunset, lakes, fish, greenery and twilight opened our eyes! Its so weird - we seem so busy to notice these and it took a vacation to truly discover God beauty.
The 20 hours we spent on a houseboat cruising through the backwaters was a very different experience!
I could go on and on - but I'll leave you with pictures - if each picture could say a thousand words you'll read a million words as you browse this album - click here!

Size 30 - evolution of a waist

2008-05-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

Stage 1:
Period: College Days
The lowest waist size (28) available was still too loose.
Solution: Alter the pants and then wear them.
Alternative solution: Go to a kids store!

Stage 2:
Period: Post college
Size 28 fits!!
A whole new world of comfort and fashion opens up!!

Stage 3:
Period: Present days (post marriage)
Today I walked into a clothes store to buy cargoes and unbelievably - size 28 did NOT fit. With trembling hands and a thundering heart I took out a size 30 cargoes and stepped nervously into the trial room. A few moments later I stepped out - the size 30 fit perfectly.
My mind flew through the past 15 years - altering pants, using a belt, then slowly noticing that the pants were tight after a meal and now this - fitting into a size 30! Joy - pure joy!!

Stage 4:
period: The future
Now my mind roams through all the possibilities! The infinite world that this evolution this evolution has now opened up. I close my eyes and dream - only to see this image - will that be me!!
For a moment I shudder.... only time will tell.....

......... to be continued!

Impress your wife: Lessons 1 and 2

2008-05-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

As the best husband in the world I will now run you through a crash course on how to impress your wife in 5 minutes! Follow these steps carefully!
Lesson 1:
1. Arrive home from work 15 minutes before your wife (The hardest part!)
2. Boil some water, add the tea leaves, add some milk and sugar - i.e. make some tea (If you can't do this step you're in trouble dude!)
3. Look at wedding gifts received and pick out the cute blue tea set with a cute tea pot and cute small cups (Duh.... didnt you get one on your wedding??!!)
4. Set it up just in time to hear the doorbell ring.
5. Give cute wife warm hug (she needs one after a long days work) and whisk her away to the Dhiwan (now don't tell me you don't have one!!)
6. Pour out the chai and cozy up on the dhiwan!
Brooke Bond Red Label Tea: Rs. 5
Milk and Sugar: Rs. 5
Tea set: Free wedding gift!
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Sitting on the Dhiwan sipping with the woman you love: PRICELESS!

Lesson 2:
1. Choose a hot summer afternoon (Plenty available here in Trichy!)
2. Look into refrigerator and take out a ripe mango lying inside (Wonder who put it there)
3. Chop the mango and put it inside the Mixie/Blender
4. Mix and blend it up and add cold milk and sugar (Drown the Mixie noise with loud singing)
5. Look into the freezer and take out the Vanilla ice cream (How on earth did it get there!)
6. Pour the mango milk shake into tall glasses given as a wedding gift
7. Top it up with scoops of ice cream.
8. Walk into hall with glasses and relish the sweet drink and the sweet smile on your wifes face
Cost of 1 sweet mango: Rs. 15
Milk and sugar: Rs. 5
Tall glasses: Free wedding gift
Ice cream: Rs. 10
Preparation time : 10 minutes
Sweet look on pretty wifes face: PRICELESS!

Well the simpler joys in life are the best!
Enjoy!! And do let me know if these lessons were useful!

The yo-yo effect!

2008-05-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

Yo guys... I did it again today.... twice!
We were off to church and I quietly passed the turning we had to take - 100 metres before Becky brought it to my notice. U-turn and there was the turning... 10 meters behind me! I had overshot again. Two rights do not make a right - this is ample proof of that saying. Five minutes later we were in church.... just in time for a closing prayer!! Duh.... whats happening!! Luckily we learnt that it was the Youth meeting that was just getting over and that the Church service would start in five minutes!
Now thats too many double-surprises to take in one evening! But then as expected we had a blessed time at church and that more than made up for these nasty surprises!

A tough life

2008-05-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

If you believe in something strongly and stand for it come-what-may it' a fact that life wont be easy for you. You gotta be ready to stare death in the face - stare at humiliation, opposition, resistance and mockery eyeball to eyeball. I wonder if I have the strength and the guts and the courage to do that for something I believe in. Will my faith stand strong - or will it break like a dry twig? If I wanna make a difference..... I gotta be more strong.... till the end.
This is how the apostles stood..... till their ends!

Matthew Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.

Mark Died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.

Luke- was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.

John Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.

Peter was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross. According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died.

James, Just The leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club. * This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.

James the Great, son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.

Bartholomew also known as Nathaniel Was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed for our Lord in present day Turkey . Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia where he was flayed to death by a whip.

Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it." He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired.

Thomas Was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the sub-continent.

Jude, Was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

Matthias The apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.

Barnabas One of the group of seventy disciples, wrote the Epistle of Barnabas. He preached throughout Italy and Cyprus . Barnabas was stoned to death at Salonica.

Paul Was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67... Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire .. These letters, which taught many of the foundational doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.

This is a grim reminder that those closest to God will face the worst.... they will also receive the greatesest strength..... and they will also make the biggest difference in the world they live in.
But he that endureth to the end shall be saved. -- Matthew 10:22.

Sputter... sputter.... cough... whirrr... cough... cough...vrrrrooom!

2008-05-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

I guess you know by now that it's the car. Last night saw the poor 800cc, 4-wheeled Maruti having his motor cleaned and then he needed a temporary pace-maker while his own battery got charged! And today morning he sprang back to life - I wasn't very happy with the sound as it wasn't as chirpy as his usual self. I still feel he may be having some undiagnosed problem with his wiring or that complicated array of stuff under his bonnet - but for now.... he looks like he'll make it!

Fire, Flames, Wind, Water and ...... Chocolate!

2008-05-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

Ain't that a great, weird combo! Here's the story
The afternoon saw me riding on the scooter riding to ABT Maruti to check the car out. He said it was the battery that had conked. But poor me - scooting around under the searing heat of the sun - FIRE!
The evening saw Becky and me checking out a new restaurant in Trichy that served great burgers and fried chicken (KFC beware!). The name of the restaurant - FLAMES!
We left the restaurant and were greeted by a strong gust that churned the dust and blinded our eyes - WIND !
And then to top off the element-filled day thunder rolled and soon we were drenched - RAIN!
Finally late in the night Beckys mom landed up at home and guess what she brought with her - CHOCOLATE!
Five moments; Five elements! Another day (How could a day that ended with loads of home-made chocolate and brownies not be great!)

Sputter... sputter... cough.... silence.... DEAD!

2008-05-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

Fortunately I'm not referring to a patient! Unfortunately I'm referring to the car - the first attempt to use it in Trichy and thats all it did! Eerie silence followed and my heart sank. My mind is now thinking of the worst case scenario - is it a total breakdown? Will it need an organ transplant? Does it need some fluids? Do we need a specialist opinion? Is the illness self-limiting? Are its vital nerves affected? Is its heart failing? Thats my way of looking at a faulty car - I wonder..... and mentally I look at my bank balance! Wish the car could speak......

Chennai Tiruchi Dubai

2008-05-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

Today was the day Appa and Amma finally flew to the US via Dubai! Becky and I helped do the final packing and rearranging and finally through the lost keys, gifts, medicines and meals we had 2 big suitcases and 2 hand baggages looking neat and tidy. We double-checked everything at home and around midnight went to the airport. I was a tad nervous as I was worried that the queues would be long and Appa and Amma had no help. But a few minutes after we bid farewell Appa called and said that as they were senior citizens they were given priority and never waited in any of the queues! At 2 AM we drove back to Trichy - Venkatesh at the wheel and Becky on my lap. The car was loaded with the computer, guitar and stretches of the road were bad. We saw three accident sites on the way - these may have happened an hour or so before we crossed these sections of the highway. I didnt sleep much and we reached Trichy safely at 8AM. Its funny - by the time we did the 320 KM to Trichy Appa and Amma had done the 3000 KM to Dubai! Ooh... the marvel of modern transport!
I also realised that travel on roads is not a piece of cake - evryday people die on the highways; some due to carelessness and others helplessly the victims of other peoples mistakes. I really wanna thank God for the safety he provided and the comfortable journey!

Six strings!

2008-05-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

At 4 PM there we were - on the car clutching our own six-string: a Pluto Hardwood acoustic guitar that Appa and Amma had presented to us for our Anniversary. Its an amazing story.
We'd decided to buy a guitar this weekend when we were in Chennai. As soon as we reached home Appa and Amma presented us a huge card and in it was some money - "Buy what you want" It took us 3 seconds to decide to buy a guitar. At the store we bought a guitar that cost almost twice as much - Becky and I thought we'd pitch in the extra cash! But Appa refused and paid the full cost! It was worth every rupee spent - the guitar sound was magical (even when I played it!!)
This is my first own guitar and I am thrilled! I hope I get to play it in church and a lot of places! Watch out for my guitar solos on YouTube coming soon!!
Thank you Appa and Amma!!!!

Alone in OPD

2008-04-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

Praburam was off today as he was down with a bad fever and cold and scratchy throat and I was left to fend for myself in OPD. Luckily, even though it was busy, I managed to finish off all the work with not many problems. Just another day and another reason to praise God for!

Error-struck

2008-04-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Goofy day! Thats what today was. Can you imagine - 5 goof-ups in one day? Yup.... I did it. Luckily they were all minor and we ended up with a few laughs!
1. As the official teamaker of the house I quickly went through the motions - heat the water, sprinkle in the tea leaves..filter.... blah...blah and 5 minutes later I was stirring the cups vigorously..... only to realise that I was supposed to be doing it to dissolve the sugar but never actually put in the sugar. Minor hiccup and a funny smile on Beckys face.... thats all.
2. We decided to go out shopping and then to Joyce Auntys house. We got on the scooter and Becky went through a quick check list before here eyes fell on my empty wrist - I'd forgotten my watch
3. I scooted up home and came back with my watch and Becky greeted me with a sheepish grin - she'd forgotten her wedding ring! Things were getting more exciting.
4. We reached Nakoda's safely and bought a skirt and some baby clothes. I stood at the counter and once the billing was over gave the salesman my card to settle the bill - my PAN Card!! He politely returned it and asked for my Credit Card - left me red-faced but we were both laughing! Becky gave me the - "I'm not surprised" smile.
5. We had a great time at Joyce Aunty's house and spent some time with Shirin and her 2 month old baby. We gave them the baby dress we bought and as we were on our way back at 10 PM I realised that we left the bill for the dress and the skirt - we needed to alter the skirt and the bill was essential to collect it back! A phone-call and a return trip saw the bill back in Beckys handbag.

All's well that ends well - no major loss or incidents! I wonder if there is a Guiness Record for such things - I'll need to apply for that one!

Goodbye Valli

2008-04-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

Valli's baby has been with us for a month now. She is frail, premature, weighs about 1 kg and today we finally had to make the tough decision - she wouldn't make it. The parents have been very, very caring and even today they were hoping... but all of us knew that the baby wouldn't make. She had showed great endurance and courage - ventilation, jaundice, apnea, sepsis, recurrent intestinal bleeds, a failing liver, oxygen dependancy, hypoglycemia, anemia...... the list is looooong.... but finally her frail body was giving up - she was just too premature and sick. the parents were out of money and we were out of medical ideas and options. They left sad but not disheartened - I was amazed at the amount of time, effort and money the parents had put in to try and save her.
Once again I couldnt help but realize that we were merely human and inspite of all medical treatment a lot of babies would not make it.
I actually dont understand why the baby, the family, the nurses and we went through this all only to come to this point. Its blurry, but I guess God still has a plan in all this...... and one day it will be crystal clear to me

Call on Jesus

2008-04-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

I've been doodling with Windows Media Player ever since Jitto told me about it when he was here. I decided to try and make a video presentation of asong I like a lot - Call on Jesus by Nicole C Mullen. Well the process took a lot more time than I expected and the end results are now blogworthy.
I'm not embedding the video here as it usually slows down the pageloading.
Click here to see my maiden attempt with Windows Movie Maker: Call on Jesus!

Barriers!

2008-04-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

We finally had our Home Fellowship (aka 'The Pitstop') today. I decided to talk about the topic 'barriers' and built it around a musical skit I saw on YouTube. Here's the story:
A few days ago one of my friends Jebahar on Orkut had added a video on his profile. At the end of the video, a usual, YouTube showed related videos and a link to a video entitled "Everything by Lifehouse - a skit". Curious, I opened it and waited patiently till it opened completely. The next 6 minutes blew my mind away and almost brought tears to my eyes. The skit with its simple message so powerfully portrayed touched me so much that I decided to use it at "The Pitstop". I struggled to download the raw format of the video from youtube but failed to get it in the format I wanted. There were a couple of links to downloads of the original video but they were all corrupt or failed to download. After a day of trying I managed to get a WMV version of the skit and then converted it into the AVI format. I then hunted for a way to make it a VCD playable on my DVD/VCD player but realised I didn't have any (Where's my Nero??!!). Finally I decided to try out the AVI format as my DVD player claimed to be able to play it. After a nervous 5 minutes of burning I popped it into my DVD player and there it was .... playing on my TV!! Success?? Not exactly - the picture quality was poor and a few portions of the skit were too fuzzy. I had another version of the skit but the choreography was not as good.
Not willing to give up I looked again and then saw a link to a WMV version of it with better resolution - a file of 60 MB. I downloaded it from the site only to find that downloading it somehow corrupted the file and the download stopped halfway. I usually use an online convertor for files and when I went to media-convert.com I saw it gave an option to convert the file directly from the source URL. I tried it and got an error after 10 minutes. I persevered and finally after watching the screen intently for 10 minutes there it was - 60 MB of the AVI file ready to download! Now the next obstacle - 60 MB takes me at least 5 hours to download on my internet connection!! I decided to download it and leave the comp on, go to work and then come back. Not too complicated eh? Except that when the download started the file was racing at a speed 20 times the normal!! I realised that my ISP was testing a new feature for a few hours that allowed me a 2MBPS connection and that meant 60 MB was done in 15 minutes! I nervously burnt it and soon - a crystal clear video playing on my TV.
Now tell me - how on earth could technology become my slave exactly when I needed it? God not only controls the storms in the seas but also the data over the internet I guess!
Today I showed the video at the Pitstop - only Juliet and Ben turned up but it was a blessing to all of us.
You can see the video of the Lifehouse: Everything ; a skit here.

The points I brought out in my talk after that were these:
1. The video shows the girl dancing with Jesus and then while dancing subtly switching partners with another guy even without realising. Many times in life the first step to a sin almost seamlessly integrates with our life and we dont realise we are drifting.
2. The skit shows that each of the five sins portrayed puts one barrier between Jesus and the girl and suddenly the girl finds herself very far from Jesus and facing a barrier five times bigger! In life every little sin and temptation can take us a little away from Christ everytime and before we know it we are really far away. Does this happen to you or do you know someone you know who is slipping away?
3. The girl gets attracted by fashion and then falls into sin. Looking good or beautiful is by itself not a sin. Its when you get obsessed with it and fall into traps surrounding it that you sin. Many things in the world today may not seem sin - TV, movies, internet, work, money etc. But when these capture all your attention and effort you lose sight of God!
4. Throughout the skit when the girl is separated from Jesus, He is waving to her and asking her to come back. Even when you stray God is speaking to you and trying to get your attention so that you can come back to Him. Watch out everyday for these signals and shouts from God!
5. Only when the Girl looks back at Jesus and then tries to run back to Him does he actually come in and break the barrier. God is waiting for you to simply look at Him and want to come back to Him. He will do the rest. We can never break the barrier ourselves!
6. Even though the girl had sinned so much Christ still gave her the biggest hug! Yup - we're never too guilty of sin that Christ will not accept us! He is just longing to hold us in His arms again!

I've just briefly mentioned what I spoke about. I hope the video and this blog entry blessed you! God loves you..... just as you are! Have a blessed day.

The "Guessing" Game

2008-04-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

We went hunting for game today - yup through the streets of Trichy and we were hoping for a prize catch to satisfy our appetite!
Now don't get us wrong - the appetite was for an intelligent board game!
Our appetite for a game stemmed from playing CatchPhrase, Cranium with Sheba & Jitto and also hearing about a word guessing game called Taboo!
We'd already checked out "Odyssey" and "FSM" and today decided to drop into a sports store to see what they had. They had a pretty impressive collection. We patiently scoured through what they showed us before Beckys sharp eyes spotted the game we finally bought. It was called Guessing and I guess its the Indian version of Taboo. The cost was under 5$ (Rs.220) and we're pretty sure this is what we wanted!!
Now to wait for someone to play it with... he ... he .... heee! D'you wanna drop in for a cup of tea and play with us? You're welcome!

Good Friday at church

2008-03-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

Inspite of staying up so late Becky and I along with Sheba and Jitto managed to go the the afternoon Good Friday service, It was a blessing and we enjoyed the 7 messages and the 3 special songs.
Traditionally the 7 messages are on the Seven words Jesus spoke on the cross - but at church today the seven messages were the following
1. Jesus in the hands of a religious man (Caiaphas)
2. Jesus in the hands of a secular man (Pontius Pilate)
3. Jesus in the hands of a cynical man (Herod)
4. Jesus in the hands of a treacherous man (Judas)
5. Jesus in the hands of a faithless man (Simon Peter)
6. Jesus in the hands of erratic men (the crowd)
7. Jesus on the cross

The content is too much to be blogged here but I guess you can imagine how blessed the congregation was.
What about you? Were you blessed at church today?

Trichy to Chennai

2008-03-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Seemed like a pretty easy trip to make - we had booked tickets and were supposed to leave at 1 Pm on Thursday after work for an extended Easter weekend home with family esp Sheba and Jitto.
On Tuesday evening Praburam had to leave urgently as his brother was unwell. That left a huge question-mark over our departure! Fortunately I got a call on wednesday and he said he'd be back in Trichy by Thursday at noon.
I manned OPD alone and tried to finish off work at 12 noon and bingo - there was a sick kid who landed up exactly at 12 noon. Praburam was still an hour away and as our ventilator was not available I had to refer the child to Suresh. Becky got stuck with a case at 12.15 PM but by 1 PM we were ready to leave. To make things easier Praburam offered to drop us at the Railway Station in the car that they had driven down in.
Just after we reached the station the clouds opened up and heavy rains thundered down on us!
Now we were taking a train that was coming from Guruvayur to Chennai via Trichy and soon discovered a problem - there was an accident involving another train derailment and the train from Guruvayur was halted! Uh-oh!
The train from Chennai to Guruvayur running in the opposite direction was halted at Trichy and then turned back as the train we were supposed to be travelling in!! And all this happened in the half hour we waited at the station. Soon we were whizzing through pouring rain and reached chennai 45 minutes late but still wondering how the timings the routes and everything worked out so well.
I know for a fact that a LOT of passengers went through hell because their trains were cancelled, rerouted or delayed. I wonder how we managed to reach Chennai without ANY trouble at all. As Becky put it - "Well, we asked Jesus to help have a safe journey las night itself!"
And to top it all up we managed to surprise Sheba and Jitto at Titus uncles house and then we were up till 4 AM playing a game called CRANIUM! Are we bonkers?

Shot in the Arm

2008-03-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

Another kid who had an accident at home! Grampa used an airgun to scare monkeys away and left the gun carelessly in the house. Eight year old kid picks it up and shoots herself in the arm. She comes into the ER with a little pain and some swelling. an Xray confirmed our fears - the metal pellet was lodged in her arm - thats the white blob that you see right next to the bone. She now needs a surgery to remove it!
I was appalled at the lack of remorse by the grandfather! This child could have ended up dead, blink or seriously sick but was lucky!! I guess God watches over the kids even if their grampas don't!
(But that is NOT an excuse to be careless and home and almost killing your own kid / grandkid!

Who am I

2008-03-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

My brother Arun emails me only when necessary and usually its very short and to the point! Today I got an unusual 1 line email. Both the subject and the body had this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT7x3VnrqbA

Yup its a youtube video. I waited patiently for the video and the next 5 minutes simply blew my mind away! This choreography performed to the song Who am I by Casting Crowns is too amazing for words. Click the link below to watch it.
Casting Crowns Who Am I choreography performed by UPCI Youth group

Playing in the rain!

2008-03-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

So its only kids who love to play in the rain stomping around puddles sliding through wet sand and getting drenched and dirty??!
Hmmmm..... then all of us must've just revisited our childhood. Through a stiff drizzle there we were playing shuttle badminton on the sand court like there was no tomorrow!We kicked up a lot of muck but refused to stop and at the end - there we were - wet and muddy and sweating - sweat, mud and rain merging together!!
So its only kids who love to play in the rain stomping around puddles sliding through wet sand and getting drenched and dirty??! You may want to reconsider that??!

Unconditional Love

2008-03-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

I participate in a few forums for discussing anything I want to and responding to queries that I can contribute to. I once posed this question on a forum:
How did it feel when you held your first child after he/she was born?
This answer touched me. I dont know this person at all but I hope she also understands Gods unconditional love through her experience.
My first pregnancy was a nightmare of doctors telling me that my baby would be deformed, mentally inadequate, etc. etc. One specialist tried to convince me to give up the child at birth as the challenge of raising it would be costly emotionally and financially and there was no guarantee that it would live very long anyway. So the day of delivery was a nightmare of fear and pain and more fear. I had a c-section and was awake through the whole thing. I remember not being able to move, but I was awake. When the baby was removed from me I literally held my breath waiting for the*verdict*. After what seemed like eons, one of the nurses put a small bundle on my right breast with the baby's head on my shoulder, face to mine. It took quite an effort of will, but I was able to turn my head just enough to look into my baby's eyes. There was such light there, such peace and intelligence that I literally felt the earth stop and within a heartbeat, begin moving again. I will never forget it. I knew in that instant that my baby was fine. The nurse told me that he had all his limbs, fingers and toes and appeared normal in every way. That child has grown strong and fine and is an honour student. Holding him for the first time was a gift from God and a vindication of the power of faith and love. I wish you less heartache than I had pitstop and can only tell you that when you hold your own child for the first time, you will finally understand the meaning of unconditional love and it will change your life and light up your soul.

Whazzat @ Trichy!

2008-03-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

Trichy never fails to amaze me with all its weird signs - a lot of my previous entries are about this phenomenon. Today we went to a small cosmetic store to buy some lip balm and my jaw dropped when I saw this notice stuck on their entrance. To be fair it is supposed to be 2 separate notices - but hey!- when you stick them so close to each other you tend to read them together. Here is a picIf the mobile pic was not clear enough here are the 2 notices:
1. Wanted Sales Girls.
2. OFFER. Buy one get one free!
Nope - its not to be read together!!!

Birthday Baby Becky

2008-03-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

Today was Beckys birthday! And that meant a lot of things to try and make it memorable for her (and me!) to be executed by this blog author - me!
I simply threw in a standard cocktail - her favorite cake and some snacks (including her favorite Mysore Pak sweet!) and called up the other docs to barge in at 12 MN! That would be a great way to start. So there we were 12 Midnight - Praburam and Rajendran at a movie theater; Arun and Catherine sleeping beyond chance of waking and Gokul and Prakash not responding to SMS/Missed calls. My plans seemed to be ready to vaporise. Finally at 12.15 there was a hushed knock on the door - I opened it with enthusiasm and there was Prakash in Pajamas - Er... am I late. It started as a whimper but soon Gokul brought in the cake and Rajendran and Praburam zoomed back with Ben dropping in and Lakshmi also joining us. After the bash it was nighty night and lights off. I managed to make a hurried breakfast for Becky. In between all her trillion phonecalls she hogged it. And then I tried my luck - snooped out of work an hour early and bought some minced meat and after a long desperate phonecall wo my mom there I was trying to make Kothu Curry. Vessles, fire, masala, vegetable pieces and water were flying all around the kitchen as Becky walked in from work looking puzzled at the mayhem! It was actually great - well cooked and tasty!! And then the best part - i dont believe in coincidences; only God-incidences. I had ordered a pearl necklace and earring set for Becky 10 days ago and had hoped it would come in a few days ago so I could gift it to her. But God had a better plan - we were lounging on the sofa in the afternoon when the doorbell rang and there was the courier guy with the gift. (I still haven't gotten over this awesome timing!!).
Then amidst another zillion phonecalls she got the cookies Sheba had sent!
We then had a quiet dinner at The Sangam Coffee house (Cascade) and wound up the blessed day!
Its simply awesome when you rake up a few odds and ends ideas for a birthday and God puts all the pieces together to create a beautiful day!!

Referred!

2008-02-29T05:33:00.000-08:00

Praburam and I try hard to manage all the children ourselves in our hospital and never refer a child. If we need a second opinion we usually send them to Vellore to meet one of our Professors or Specialists we know.
Right now we have a baby on a ventilator and it will be at least three days before we can take him off it. Then out of the blue - TWINS! Born at 32 weeks and very tiny. Both of them had severe breathing difficulty and my gut feeling was that they would not hold on for too long. So I made a couple of phonecalls and sent them in an hour to another hospital. It was a wise decision as a few hours later one of the babies needed to be ventilated.
Later I had a 13 year old guy who came with severe abdominal pain after a fall while running down the stairs. An Xray revealed air under the diaphragm - he had a hole in his intestines. Unfortunately they said they could not afford surgery here and hence decided to take him to the Government Hospital. Both the Pediatric Surgeon and I felt it was OK as we had resuscitated the child well and he was stable.
Inspite of your best efforts sometimes we need to do such things and I guess its an integral part of clinical decision making - prompt decisions and early referrals where needed.
I thank God for the wisdom and the uneventful transport of these childre. Hope they all do well.

Addicted2jesus SMS service

2008-02-21T06:39:00.000-08:00

I started this a few years ago when airtel allowed us to send free / cheap SMS. I soon had more than 100 contacts (Indian and International) who subscribed and were receiving cool Christian quotes/ thoughts every week or so. The process took quite some time. It was easy on my old Nokia and when I got my Sony it became a little more difficult and over the last couple of months there were lots of sending errors. A few weeks ago I bumped into my friend Bijoi online and he introduced me to a service that allows you to do it online for free and with just a single click! It saved me a lot of time and effort - no more hitting send a hundred timed etc etc - type it in and click send to all!
If you still are not a subscriber do it now - its FREE.
Click here to add your mobile number to the list and receive free uplifting SMS from me @ addicted2jesus.com!
I thank God for this service and the amount of time it saves me. Needless to say I am very regular in sending out the SM now - you can see the list of thoughts / quotes sent here @ SMSgupshup

My Valentine - season two

2008-02-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

Season one last year was 300 km apart, engaged and held together by ebay, courier and furns 'n petals!
Season two saw us in the same house, married and no space to plan a surprise.
But to cut a sweet story short - I managed to sneak in some surprises although the rose, cushion and chocolates spent a lonely light out int the cold in my bike!!
I also managed to get in some sausages for lunch - made it myself (followed the instructions which said heat for 3-5 minutes in oil!!)
Here's a pic!

The uncertainty of life - Rabies

2008-02-11T07:15:00.000-08:00

This video is not for the weak hearted. This child had a dog-bite a couple of months ago and did not receive his vaccinations.He now has full blown rabies. he has both aerophobia and hydrophobia - fear of air and water. The child died the next day.
I strongly recommend that you vaccinate your dog and in case of a dog bite see a doctor to decide what to do. Delay and ignorance mean death.

Click here to see the video.

Church Dedication

2008-02-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

Very busy night, sick babies, minimal sleep, multiple phonecalls, rounds to do in the morning, on call, a call at 8AM - a great menu to bunk church this morning. Add to this the fact that todays service was at a new place further away and it was a longer special service expected to last more than 2 hours. I slumped back into bed at 8.30 AM groggy - the service was supposed to start at 9 AM! Then somehow Becky encouraged me and after a hurried breakfast I peeped into all the kids in the ward and we rode off in search of the new place where our church was gonna get relocated. We reached after the worship time. We got places to sit and boy! Was it a blessed time!! I got a few phonecalls and Praburam took care of one that needed to be seen quickly. The service went all the way beyond 1 PM and we managed to be there till the very end!! Now how on earth was that possible!! We skipped the special lunch at the church and came back home after picking some food on the way.
I still cant believe we did it - surely we needed strength and encouragement from above to go to church and in the end it was a blessing to us!!
Please do pray for the church relocation - there is still a lot of financial needs and the building is gonna take a long time! But I'm sure God already has a way planned to make it glorious!

A food story

2008-02-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

This is the sequence of events. Yesterday I went to the supermarket to get some regular stuff. I got everything except the Idli Maavu (for making breakfast the next day) which was not available. Becky had already made the Saambhar for the idli and for lunch last night (she normally makes it only in the morning or at lunchtime). As the maavu was not there we had bread for breakfast and so there was extra unused saambhar which we decided to use for dinner. Becky got really late at work today and we felt happy that the food had already been cooked so we could get to eat lunch straightaway!
Now the miracle does not stop there!
I got a call for Juliet who said, "Benji - do you have some eggs? I've been stuck at work and need to cook something for my kids. They need to rush out for a school program." We did NOT have any eggs - we'd used up the last egg for breakfast!
End of miracle??!!
There was a simple 2 point solution
1. Give the extra saambhar to Juliet so she could use it with the rice.
2. Hop across to Catherines house and borrow (or steal) some eggs.
Both steps were completed in 3 minutes and soon we were all happy - food for the tummy and praise for our hearts!
Juliet summed it all up when she took the eggs and Saambhar from me - God Bless You, she said.
If only she knew the series of steps and events that made it possible!!
Bottomline: There are no coincidences in life - only Godincidences! A coincidence is when God performs a miracle and decides to stay anonymous!

The cook!

2008-02-06T09:54:00.000-08:00

Yes I did it!! I cooked lunch for the first time in my whole life!! Becky kinda dictated what I needed to do and soon there was rice, rasam and potato curry at the dining table and both of us were polishing off a seemingly delicious lunch!! Well so much for my first cooked meal. But I am no stranger to the kitchen - you can see me in action @ the kitchen in these photos here. I'll leave you with a lic of my meal.
(There was a major powercut and we took this shot with a mobile cam. Yup.... the whole thing tired me out!)

Unwell

2008-02-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

Its not been the best week for Becky. She has an infected lymph node in her axilla which is swollen and painful. Yesterday her tonsils got infected and they're swollen. And to top it all she has an eye infection (conjunctivitis) and her eyes are red and a little swollen too!! She is on cephalexin (an antibiotic), but because her tonsils started worsening we decided to give her a shot of Penicillin (Penidure) today. She now has an injection swelling on her injection site as well.
Thats a huge list of swellings. Becky is braving it all out and even went to work and did some cooking. She hasn't been complaining too much (except for the demand for some extra love from a loving husband!). I'm praying that they all settle down soon and hope that she gets back to her normal self again. If you're reading this please do pray for her speedy recovery.

Whazzat @ Trichy

2008-02-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

Another typo blooper I saw at the Kaveri Supermarket today. It was in the deodorant spray section and was meant to discourage people from trying them on simply. Nothing too funny, but I would have expected them to pay a little attention to their spelling!

Inbetween times

2008-02-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

We're at Coimbatore today for Josies wedding. The engagement was in the morning and the wedding in the evening. There was about 3 hours inbetween. This time meant different things for each of us.
Becky
- Get back to the hotel
- Change
- Wait for Ajju to pick her up
- Go to the Beauty Parlor
- Hair etc
- Change Sari
- Wait for car to drop her back at the hotel
- Go for the wedding

Athai
- Help distribute snacks to some people staying at Vijay Paradise Hotel
- Decorate the wedding car
- Recheck everything with Josies mom
- Get dropped back at the hotel
- Dress up
- Go for the wedding

Becker, Mama and me
- Get back to the hotel
- Crash/Watch TV
- Get dressed
- Go for the wedding

Woah! A guys life seems so much simpler!!
The bottomline?
Inspite of complicated varied schedules the ladies got ready as early as the guys and we all went to the church ahead of time and helped out etc etc. Thats a combo of efficient ladies and relaxed guys for you!!
To add a Biblical touch "And we know that all things work together for good to those that love God". We could truly feel His presence and had a blessed time through the busy schedules and all the madness that goes on with weddings!!

Flowers for Becky

2008-01-30T22:21:00.000-08:00

No - the flowers were not from me. Becky was the judge for the Nursing Students Flower Arrangement contest held today. I dont know why she was chosen as a judge and not me (On second thoughts maybe I DO know). The students had made flowers artificially by hand - not just the arrangement but each flower!! It was a great show of artistry and talent and Becky enjoyed the judging - especially being treated like royalty as she was the Chief Guest etc etc. Fortunately she did not receive any threats after the decision and prizes and we had a safe trip home (a 48 second ride on my Kinetic Honda).
Here's a pic of one of the smaller things they created.The bottomline: Man can try his best - but can never create something as naturally beautiful as what God created. God has however given man wisdom and talent to be like Him and enjoy beauty and make beautiful things. Can the Taj Mahal in all its splendour equal the beauty of snow capped mountains or lush green valleys?
Enjoy Gods creation today!!

Health camp

2008-01-24T00:21:00.000-08:00

The student nurses as a part of their training held a free health camp fopr kids and Praburam and I were the chosen doctors (no other choice for the nurses!!) After dropping off Becky at the parlour we went to the camp and ended up seeing about 80 kids in a make-shift clinic. We had a useful time. The highlight of the camp was a health education program the student nurses organised after the camp. There was a traditional Villu paatu and a skit followed by a couple of talks. Praburam and I sat in the back and enjoyed the program as the kids were naughty and kept disturbing the proceedings. we managed to get back to the OPD on time and felt quite happy. I'll leave you with a pic of the program.

Another day of manys!

2008-01-20T05:25:00.000-08:00

It was supposed to be a lazy Sunday but turned out to be actioned packed.
Wake-up call:
We woke up late. Now there may be excuses for this, but I think we should get a little more organised and wake up in time for church on Sundays.
Joseph comes in:
Joseph a Christian friend from Vellore dropped in suddenly to visit me. He'd been promising to do that for a few weeks. It was nice to see him. I love his faith and simplicity and I was awe-struck that he made the overnight trip just to see me. We traded stories and Becky made some awesome food inspite of no notice and we had a blessed time
Shuttle time.... again:
We got to thrash around again as we played shuttle badminton and broke out a good sweat. It feels so much healthier than sitting in front of the TV or the computer - you gotta try out some sport!!
Official Freddy Joseph fan:
I'm hooked. Freddy is a singer and preacher. He has an awesome voice and preaches really well - he connects well with the crowd and comes straight to the point when he preaches - no fancy jargon etc! We had a blessed day today at his meeting and felt very uplifted. You can visit Freddy Joseph at http://www.freddyjoseph.com/ and find out more about him! Have a blessed time @ the site.
Ajay:
It was sheer coincidence (God-incidence!) that I bumped into Ajay today. Ajay was a part of the worship team at our church in Vellore (Peniel Tabernacle). He'd stumbled into the Freddy Joseph meeting today while just driving around and we bumped into each other after the meeting. We scooted off to Sangam and caught up on stuff over dinner and came back late in the night.
Looking back - there was a lot that happened today. We started off lazy but still had a blessed time throughout the day. Thank God for arranging such a special day today.

A day of Many

2008-01-16T08:27:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the bland title - but I couldnt think of anything interesting.
1. The day started off with Sruthika - a cute 1 year old girl who was admitted with a severe pneumonia and needed 10 days of expensive antibiotics before she was fit for discharge today. She's back to her bubbly self today and when I saw her today - there she was with a very macho looking mustache drawn by some nurse. She seemed to be enjoying it and I'm glad she got better. Here's a pic
2. Badminton: Yesterday all of us (Arun, Catherine, Praburam, Rajendran, Becky and I) went crazy and played badminton till it was too dark to see and we decided to make our own court and make it a regular. So today Becky and I wnet ahead and bought our racquets! I've gotta learn to make contact between the shuttle and the racquet, but besides that everything looks headed for a grand start!
3. No cooking day: We had lunch at one of the nurses house as they had a function and dinner was at a bakery - cake and pizza. The reluctance to cook today stems from the fact that our maid is sick (a painful ankle) and Becky is down with the flu. So we didnt have too many dishes to do too!
4. Reliance Power: I've been debating whether to put some money in this IPO as it is expected to open very strongly! I've been thinking about investments and stuff a lot lately as we realise our saving potential (or the lack of it!!) DNeero sent this timely survey for me!

5. An ATM withdrawal: Nothing peculiar about the transaction, but the following notice on the ATM made me nervous!
PLEASE COLLECT CASH AS SOON AS IT IS DISPENSED. OTHERWISE SAME WILL DISAPPEAR INTO THE MACHINE.
Whazzat @ Trichy again!!! Here's a picture proof of the same!
PS: My quick reflexes made sure I grabbed all the cash I needed.
Also please pray for Becky so she gets better quickly!

A hole in the head

2008-01-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

"Look doc - I have a hole in my head"
Thats what Vigneswaran seems to be telling me in the pic below!
Unfortunately the story isnt as funny although it has a happy ending.
Vignesh was brough a couple of weeks ago after he fell off the gate which he was playing on. He had a huge swelling on the head and a black eye. An Xray and CT revealed a skull fracture. He was a little dull and drowsy and we started him on several meds, transfused blood (His Hemoglobin dropped to 6 gm%) and as soon as he was stable he was wheeled into the Operation Theater where a bit of his skullbone was removed and some blood clots removed. He make a speedy recovery and today he came for his suture removal. He was bubbly, naughty and fun - just like a normal 4 year old!
But I shudder to think what may have been - death? a life paralysed? A life like a vegetable? A life unable to speak / see?
He escaped and I thank God for it.
Please, please, please..... be careful when your kids play. Keep a watchful eye and if needed child-proof your house. They can do anything anytime!