Ain’t that a great, weird combo! Here’s the storyThe 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…

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……

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 –…

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…

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…

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…

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??!

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!!!

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 –…

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…