It Is Common Sense!

I was passing in front of the operation theater, when a Resident Doctor in a scrub suit, cap and mask came out of the theater and called out aloud a patient's name. There was no response. She called again loudly, when a couple of relatives of presumably the same patient suddenly realized that she was calling out their relative's name. They were sitting at some distance from the door of the operation theater. They jumped to their feet and rushed forward.
"You should be sitting right near the door of the operation theater when your relative is being operated upon" she scolded them. "It's common sense!"
They did not seem to be upset by her scolding and criticism, probably because they were worried about their relative undergoing some operation. I went my way to my work. In the afternoon I called the ward to find out who the resident doctor was who had been speaking to those people. After a few inquiries, they managed to locate her, and a little while later she arrived in my office with her Registrar.
After they were seated comfortably, I asked her if she remembered what she had said to those people. After coaxing her a few times, she said "I told them that they should be sitting near the door when their relative was undergoing an operation in there."
"Was that all? Was there nothing else that you said?' I asked. She maintained there was nothing else. Then I repeated what she had said verbatim, and I managed the same tone as hers when I said 'It's common sense!'. She kept quiet.
"You had put another patient and her relatives on the seats near the door" I said. "How would these people sit on those seats?" There was no answer. "There should have been a notice behind those seats stating that those were reserved for relatives of patients getting operated on. That is common sense! And it would be my job to have the notice put there. So I did not have the sense to do that, what?"
There was no answer. Actually we have installed a public address system in the operation theater, so that Resident Doctors do not have to go out and shout the names of people to call them. I am yet to see anyone use it in the last 2 years after it has been installed. They prefer shouting names of people and getting irritated when there is no immediate response.
"Why do you insult people like that?" I asked. "They come to us because they are poor. But they have their own dignity. They are important in their own world, doing things they do every day. That they need us does not give us the right to say rude things to them."
"I am sorry" she said.
'Saying that to me has little meaning, when you have insulted other people" I said. "Suppose your folks come to see you and are scolded at the gate by the security guard - 'Don't you know you have to come in visiting hours? It's common sense!', how would they feel and how would you feel? Remember that the people you were rude to were elders for some people just like you have your own elders."
She kept quiet.
"Suppose you apply for Visa to some country, they call you for an interview, and say 'don't you know better than to fill this form like this? It's common sense!', how would you feel?"
She kept quiet.
"Please remember you are able to learn here because these patients come here for treatment. I have a job here because there are patients desiring treatment. Let us not be rude to them and their relatives. I would like you to read Stephen Covey's book 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People'. It might change your life for better."
"Sorry Sir" she said "I won't do it again." They left sedately. I wonder if she took my advice for what it meant, or as a scolding from the boss, to be suffered as long as one was working in the institute. I hope it was the former.

3D Model of Pelvic Structures

I felt a 3D model of a woman's pelvic structures would be very useful for teaching anatomy to undergraduate students, and pelvic surgery to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. I made one, which looks as follows. The blog page does not permit it to be rotated through all angles and in all directions, but in my browser with a 3D plugin, it can be rotated. I have put it on my website along with my 3D instruments, at this address.

I could have labelled this diagram, but I have no heart to mess with the 3D view with 2d arrows and text. A key to the color code is as follows.

Color	Structure
Grey-green	Pubic bone and sacrum
Light violet	Uterus and fallopian tubes
Dark pink	Vagina
Purple	Bladder and urethra
Yellow	Rectum
Brown	Round, uteroovarian,  cardinal and uterosacral ligaments
White	Ovaries
Red	Uterine and ovarian arteries
Blue	Uterine and ovarian veins
Dark brown	Levator ani muscle

How I Repaired A Latch Lock

We have a safety door outside two adjacent flats, our neighbor’s and ours. It has a latch lock – the sort that opens from the inside by turning a knob, and from the outside with a key. Its mechanism got disturbed and instead of locking when pushed or pulled closed, it started springing open again. So one had to really press the door firmly in order to lock it. If one just slammed it and went away, the door would remain open. Since the lock itself was working OK, we called a carpenter. He advised us to call a locksmith. We called a locksmith, who advised us to change the lock. Since the lock itself was OK in my opinion, I decided to fix it myself, if possible. I studied the lock in various positions of the door - fully open to fully closed.

This figure shows the lock with the door in closed position. The dark purple knob is twisted to unlock the lock.

This figure shows the lock when the door was open. The yellow slider is out, while it is within the grey part when the door is closed.

This figure shows the lock when the door was being closed. The yellow slider slid into the violet casing by pressure of the grey part.

This figure shows the lock when the door was closed casually. The grey part had sunk a little in the wooden frame of the door, and the edge of the yellow slider abutted against that of the grey part so that it could not slip into it. Then it slid out again by spring action and the door opened.

I removed the grey part, put a folded strip of card board as a filler behind it and fitted it back again, such that it became level with the purple part. Then the slider moved freely into the two parts and the lock started locking even when the door was closed casually.It took me a quarter as long to repair the thing as it did to create the art work for this blog.

Investigation Stories

Laboratory investigations are so everyday ordinary things that one cannot imagine they can have anything to do with human thoughts, emotions, or attitudes. Well, one would be wrong to do so.
I recall one resident doctor, having qualified and gone away from our hospital, who had substituted the cerebrospinal fluid report of a sick newborn baby with pyogenic meningitis with a normal one. Fortunately the boss had a feeling that the baby had pyogenic meningitis, even if the report was normal. SO she checked with the laboratory and found the real report. The resident doctor had doctored the report so that she would not have to work hard treating the baby. The baby went home fine, and the resident doctor did not repeat this after being reprimanded.
There was another resident doctor, a kind person, who had substituted a hemogram report showing leucocytosis with a normal report. Fortunately there was another report which showed leucocytosis. When asked the reason for doing so, she said the patient wanted to undergo a sterilization operation very badly, and would not have been fit for surgery if the leucocytosis was noticed by the anesthetists. When explained that the idea was not to do something the patient wanted, but to treat her as her medical condition demanded, she promised to not repeat performance. She stuck to her word.
Then there is the story of a resident doctor who claimed her Registrar was torturing her. One of the alleged methods of torture was that the Registrar would keep patients in her ward longer than necessary and would ask her to get laboratory tests which were complicated, so that she would have to do extra work.
I think there will be interesting stories related to the most drab things, as long as they are related to human beings.

Fascination For Old Masters?

I was called to the Boss' office for a meeting. Representatives of some association of gynecologists and a local branch of an international elite club had gone to the Boss for getting us to hold a training course for doctors in tribal areas. I went there to find that two of the three representatives were actually my seniors from my residency days. One of our staff members was also there. The meeting was going on, and the Boss was in and out periodically, attending another meeting at the same time.
"We are getting doctors from UK to train doctors from two tribal areas to reduce maternal mortality" they explained. "We want to conduct the sessions in this hospital over 3 days. On the fourth day they will train resident doctors here. We need three rooms."
"I am disturbed" I said "because you have arranged for a program in my department without consulting me and my colleagues first. I am confused too.Why do you want to hold their training sessions in our hospital, when we are not involved in any way? Surely not only for space? You are rich enough to hire out three rooms in a five star hotel, where the UK doctors will be comfortable, rather than in a civic hospital."
"Well" they looked a little uncomfortable, "they will train local residents on one day too. Besides, we were students of this college. So we thought we would do it here."
That sounded pretty lame.
"You are doing good work" I said "trying to reduce maternal mortality. But I need to know what they will teach our resident doctors. We understand problems of our people. We make great efforts to teach our residents, and I don't want our program set back because they are taught something that is not right for our set up."
"Well, we don't know the contents. They said they will teach new FIGO guidelines. They are bringing their mannequins for training."
"You mean you don't know what they will actually teach our people after planning all this" I was politely incredulous. "Please ask them and tell me. You can do your first three days program here, but not training our residents until I know the content of the teaching."
The fellow emailed or instant messaged the party at the UK end and sat staring at the screen of his laptop for a reply. "In the meantime, please tell me why you thought the UK doctors would know more about the problems causing maternal mortality in India than you and I do? You are quite competent to teach those doctors in tribal areas. Why these people?"
"They have FIGO guidelines"
"We can read any FIGO guidelines on the net. I have not found any on this topic so far.May I politely point out that you are in a way insulting our faculty by inviting these people to teach us, especially when you do not know what they will teach and that it is indeed important stuff?"
"...." I was making them uncomfortable, I could see. But I preferred to make them uncomfortable rather than be uncomfortable myself.
"Do you remember reading in newspaper about their prime minister saying recently 'what happened at Jalianwala Baug was shameful? Do you understand he did not say 'what was done at Jalianwala baug?' and that he did not apologize for it? Do you remember reading they refused visa to our leading badminton player who wanted to participate in all England open?" They kept quiet. "I remember a meeting called by our that time Boss, where there was a visiting doctor from UK, and all senior faculty were invited to make academic suggestions to him. When our cardiovascular surgical head suggested an exchange program, he was insulted by the visitor, who grimaced and said 'OK, but it should be younger doctors. Surely our professor was not saying he himself wanted to go! There was no need to imply such a thing and also to draw attention to our professor's age. Years later, I myself still hurt thinking of that insult to one of my senior colleagues."
They kept quiet. Perhaps they sensed the truth in my words. Perhaps not.
"I am in service. If my Boss tells me to give you space, I will. But I prefer you do not put me in a spot by asking me to host them and appear as if I am obliged by their efforts. If my residents' training is forced on us, I will take leave on that day, and let someone else who does not think as I do handle things. But I request you let us move on after being free of their rule of 150 years, rather than show that they are still superior or that we need them, when we probably do not. My intention is not to insult you all. If I have done so, I apologize. I am saying all this as head of my department, carrying out what I think is required of my position. I am also saying this because I do not want to get stressed out doing something I strongly and justifiably feel against."
We parted civilly. I made arrangements for their three days' work. But the Boss did not send me any letter asking me to do as they wanted, they did not send me the curriculum, they did not communicate with me, and did not turn up on the scheduled day.
"Why do you think they wanted it done here?" I asked the colleague who had been in that meeting.
"Sir, they must have been promised a big amount by their UK sponsor for carrying out the program. The condition must be that it be carried out in a reputable teaching institute. They must have needed our reputation."
That made sense. I had thought they had wanted those people because they were still fascinated by our one time rulers!

Harrison's Medicine As Marketing Aid?

I will say that pharmaceutical companies have their own share of innovative marketing people. Or perhaps they hire such specialists. One such company's sales representative and his manager approached me the other day.
"This is our multivitamin preparation, doctor" the manager said. He held his promotional display catalogue in front of my eyes. "Our formula is as recommended by Harrison's medicine. It is very beneficial to patients."
I looked at the catalogue, because he seemed to expect me to admire it. It has a box shot of Harrison's text book of medicine on the left side, and a table of contents of the formula on the right side. It seemed odd that a picture of the book should have been there. It seemed as if the text book was about this product, and endorsed it too. It looked like the picture at the top.
"I will check the contents of your formula and see if they are as in the text book" I said. "We shall discuss this next week."
I checked up the contents in Harrison's text boo. Except vitamin C, none of the vitamins were in concentrations as prescribed. I have been waiting for a month now. Despite the original understanding and despite messages through other company representatives, this due has not met me again.
Last week another pharmaceutical company's sales team met me. They were marketing clindamycin tablets for bacterial vaginosis.
"The dose is as recommended by Harrison's medicine" the representative said. I looked at the open catalog she held in front of me to admire. It had the same box shot of the book in the same place as was in the catalog of the other company. Probably both companies had hired the same agency for marketing publicity.
"I will check this in Harrison's medicine" I said. "Have you paid publisher of Harrison's medicine text book royalty for using a photograph of that book for marketing your product.?"
"..." she looked at me blankly.
"Your use of this photograph suggests that Harrison's text book endorses the use of your drug. References are not written the way you have done it. What you have done reminds me of seeing famous actors' photographs outside barber shops in town and villages. It is a gimmick to make people believe these famous actors go to that barber for getting their hair cut."
"That is done by the company, doctor" she said.
I checked Harrison's text book again. It had mentioned the drug and dosage as recommended by that pharmaceutical, but only after describing vaginal cream as the primary line of treatment, and also that recurrences were known to occur after this treatment. These details were conveniently omitted by the pharmaceutical company.
Are you aware of this, Mr Publisher of that book?

Innovative Plumbing Aid

Though I admire the innovation in plumbing I am going to describe now, I was no part of the thought process behind it or implementation of the same. I was a mere spectator.
The architectural consultant and contractor for repair and renovation of our hospital building was a wonderful pair. The former designed and the latter built on the designs. The drainage of the sink in the OT was one such wonder so produced. There were three outlets, and they were drained into a single pipe which to the main drainage. The drainage pipe was set at an angle of about 15 degrees with the horizontal, presumably to aid drainage by gravity. Unfortunately the same gravity pulled downward on the pipes and the joints, which in due course came off. By that time the wonderful due had bid us adieu. The hospital plumbers were apparently not equipped to deal with such a situation. Finally the servants of the operation theater tried different methods, as follows.

1. They put buckets under each leaking joint. That prevented spill on the ground. But they had to emptu the buckets frequently, which was quite a bother.
2. They got hospital plumbers to repair the joints. The joints would not stay repaired due to gravity as we saw before. In order to support the joints from below, the servants put empty plastic cans below them. That looked like figure A above.
3. The plastic cans were light and would get bent by pressure of the plumbing. So they replaced them with paver blocks, which the contractor's workers working elsewhere in the compound were glad to give them. The hospital plumbers fixed them with cement. The end result is as shown in figure B above.

Heighted Femail

It is free country - democratic - and everyone has a right to live, speak and do as one pleases (within reason and limits of law). The British rulers have long gone, and the language they left behind does not enjoy their protection any more. No, not in this country.
".... the papers should be sent to this office at the earliest plz." I read in a letter received from the  administrative officer the other day. Either it was the way people write in text messages on mobile phones, or the fellow was getting even with people who ruled this country for 150 years.
Another reason people abuse the language is because they are in love with it. Sounds paradoxical, huh? Well, these people are actually in love with the idea of speaking that language, whether they can or not. There is this clerical person in one office of the institute. She is quite nice and efficient. English was not in her curriculum at any time up to graduation. I had asked her to send me a spreadsheet on data on mothers and babies. She sent me a file that was named by her as 'femail child'. "She must have typed that in place of 'female', while thinking of any emails she might have received" I thought. Then one day I found her limping along and asked what the matter was. We were speaking in our mother tongue.
"I sprained my ankle" she said. I noticed she was wearing high heels, though she was quite tall without any heels.
"You should see an orthopedic surgeon" I suggested. She thought it was a good suggestion and went to see one. When I met her the next day, I asked her her ankle was.
"It is OK" she said. "There is just a sprain."
"Did he advise wearing high heels?" I asked in as innocent a voice as I could muster.
"Oh, no!" she smiled. "Why wear high heels when I am already so heighted?"
It took me a couple of seconds to realize that she meant 'tall' when she said 'heighted".
"Yes, that is true" I said.
I kept that file named 'femail child' on my desktop as a reminder to write on it some time. I have been debating with myself if I should write on it, fearing it would hurt the fine feelings of an otherwise efficient and nice person. Every time I see the file , I think of the 'heighted femail' episode.Finally I decided to write on it today, so that I could clear my desktop.

Funky Watering Can

I read once in a newspaper that plants should be watered with a watering can and not with a hose. It was said that it saved water. I even recall seeing a photograph someone from British Royal family watering plants with a watering can. Well, I remember wondering if they did not have gardeners. Perhaps it was a photo released to the media by the PR persons, like once a Dean of a civic hospital was shown measuring the water level in the hospital's underground water reservoir with a stick inserted through its open lid. Or one of a specialty head of department telling us a story of how she took the hose from the gardener of the hospital and watered a plant, and that she was hoping a journo would happen to pass by and take her picture and put it in newspapers.
I water potted plants in my house because someone has to water them and we do not hire a gardener to manage our hobby for us. I used to pour water in the pots until my wife said it was wastage of a lot of water, most of which ran off. Since there was not enough space to use a watering can, I devised one out of an empty plastic bottle of mineral water. I made a number of holes in its lids. When filled with water and held inverted, it sprinkled water. One has to squeeze it to make the water jets spurt out. I made three D models of my make shift watering bottle and an actual watering can, just to show off my expertise (!) at 3D modeling. In the picture below, A and B are shots of my model of the bottle from different angles, and C is a watering can. I hope you appreciate the holes in the cap and nozzle. I spent much more time making these models from nothing, than making holes in the cap of a real mineral water bottle.

Radical Cure Of Plant Fungus

We have a large number of potted plants at home. Once the Hibiscus developed powdery mildew - a fungal infection. It was a sort of an epidemic that affected many trees and plants in the neighborhood. We washed the leaves, but it would not go away. Most of the affected trees and plants died. But I could not bear to let ours die. So I made a solution of clotrimazole vaginal pessaries that are used to treat vaginal candidiasis. I sprayed the affected plant with it. It cured the plant. It is still alive and flowering a couple of years later.
When the Guava tree outside my office window developed the same, I knew it would die if not treated in time. I could not spray a tree one floor high. It was a job for professionals. I wrote to the Professor who had been assigned the job of looking after the gardens. It appeared that this Professor had released herself from the job after the assigning Dean had retired. But she told me whom to call. I called the concerned department. The personnel from that department came, inspected the tree, and made an appointment for the next day. The next day I found the tree totally cut off.
"Why did they cut off the tree?" I asked our servant. "They had to spray it with antifungal solution."
"They said they did not have any such medicines. The only way to cure it was to put the plant out of its misery."
"God Bless" I murmured, deeply pained at what had been done.

Women's Day Special

The civic body has decided to celebrate women's day in a big way this time. There are to be joint health care clinics catering to civic employee women's needs like gynecologic disorders, psychiatric disorders, dental needs, physiotherapy needs, and urinary incontinence. The celebration is to start a week after the actual day itself, and is to continue for a month or so. I wonder why the civic body feels its women employees need psychiatric care. I only hope that women's organizations do not take offense at such a suggestion. I have not been any part of making of such a decision. But I felt that women should have at least my best wishes for the day, since the actual celebration by the civic body would be sort of a belated one.
I started with my batch of undergraduate students. Out of ten students, two were women and eight were men.
"Happy women's day to you two" I told the women students during my teaching session. They seemed very happy at that. Then I turned towards the guys and said "Happy women's day to girlfriends of those of you who have girlfriends." Two of the eight perked up at that and smiled broadly. The other six seemed downcast. "I wish that those of you who do not have girlfriends at present will have them by the time of the women's day next year." All of the six perked up at that. "But that does not mean you leave studies and start looking for girlfriends. Do that only if your parents want you to do so." Their laughter sounded as if they did not plan to ask for parental permissions.
I wished 'Happy Women's Day" to the nurses in my operation theater, where I was working today, and also to clerical staff in our office, where I went after the OT was over. They all were happy with that wish. It made me wonder how little it takes to make women happy - just a heart felt wish would do it.

Obstetrician Stand By

When I reached the operation theater, there was quite a bit of discussion. A number of my people were standing outside. One Registrar was in street clothes, ready to go out rather than into the OT.
"What is the issue at hand?" I asked.
"The orthopedic surgeons have posted a patient was reduction of a fracture of a humerus. The patient is 22 weeks pregnant. They want one of us to remain as stand by during the procedure."
"What is the person supposed to do?" I asked with surprise. "There is nothing an obstetrician can do during orthopedic surgery."
"They are saying that an obstetrician is required if the baby comes out."
"How will the baby come out, if the cervix is closed and the woman is not in labor?" I asked.
"That is what we have been telling them."
"OK. I will speak to those people. You go into the OT and start work."
They went in and started work. I called the orthopedic surgeons and stated the purpose of my call.
"No, we are not asking for obstetrician stand by. The anesthetist in charge is asking for one" the orthopedic surgeon said. "She has not come yet.
"Ah!" I said. Perhaps she wanted the obstetrician to protect the fetus from undue irradiation, acting as a shield in place of a lead shield?
"She has just come. Please speak to her" the orthopedic surgeon said.
So I spoke to her. "I will come and remain a stand by" I said. "But I don't know what is expected of me. Please tell me what you want me to do while they reduce and fix the fracture. The baby is not going to deliver in that time." I knew she knew that, since she had worked in our OT too, and anyway anyone with even just bachelor's degree in medicine would know that.
"Um... no. I just want someone to hear fetal heart sounds before inducing anesthesia. They must have misinterpreted my statement." She seemed to have learned from politicians. They always say that when cornered on a gaffe.
"It is a bit difficult to hear fetal heart sounds at 22 weeks" I said. "Please ask for an ultrasonography to check fetal heart activity."
"OK" she said and slammed the phone. She probably felt insulted. But I could not afford to send a person away from OT on a fruitless errand. I called the orthopedic OT again and asked for her.
"She has gone to change into OT clothes" the nurse said.
"Please tell her that the head of obstetrics and gynecology called again because she put the phone down before he had finished speaking. Please tell her that what I had to tell her was even more important than what I told her."
"Yes" she said.
Six hours have passed, but she has not called me. She probably believed she had got enough advice from me.

Civic Buck Passing

Two newspaper stories attracted the attention of someone. One was about the civic body planning to give free sanitary napkins to school girls. The other was about the civic body putting up creche facilities in civic hospitals. He must have thought the decisions were not appropriate. So he wrote to the governor and sent a copy of the letter to the president of the country. He advised that napkins should not be distributed to school girls because the area surrounding schools was already dirty and if the girls threw used napkins around, it would become dirtier. Instead clean bathrooms and toilets should be provided in schools. The other suggestion was that creches run by needy women should be registered and encouraged rather than building creches in the civic hospitals. That would help those women, and get revenue for the civic body too.
Passing the buck began when the letter reached the primary addressee.

1. A secretary sent it to the civic body chief for further necessary action (fna).
2. The secretary in that office sent it to the boss of bosses of the civic hospitals, and also one to the education officer for fna..
3. Further progress of the letter from the office of the education officer is not known at present. From the boss of the bosses, it was sent to the bosses of civic hospitals for fna..
4. Further progress in the other civic hospitals is not known at present. From the office of the boss of one civic hospital known to us, the letter was sent to the deputy administrative boss for fna.
5. The  deputy administrative boss sent to head of obstetrics gynecology for fna.

The head of obstetrics gynecology was flummoxed. He had no idea how to build good toilets and bathrooms in schools, nor how to register creches in the city and get revenue from them. He thought he could do one of the following.

1. Send it to his Associate Professor for fna, who would then send it to the Assistant Professor, and the letter could then get forwarded successively to the Registrar, House Officer, and finally the Intern for fna. The intern would then stall the issue until his/her posting of 4 weeks got over, and go away without trace.
2. Send a copy to the city civil engineer for building the toilets and bathrooms, and another to civic body chief for registering the existing creches. The former would throw it in a black hole, while the latter would not take it too kindly that the letter sent out by him/her reached him/her again.
3. Send the letter back to deputy administrative boss asking how the obstetrics gynecology department of the hospital could build toilets and bathrooms in schools, and register existing creches and collect revenue from them.

The third option was exercised. The further course of the letter is not known at present. I will not be surprised if it ends up in a black hole nor if a meeting of heads of departments of obstetrics and gynecology in civic hospitals is convened by the administration to plan the action to be taken.

Reverse Scam Guardians

Actually it may not be called 'reverse scam', but let us stick to it for want of better term.
There is a procedure to safeguard against payment of higher than the lowest price for purchase of any equipment by the civic body, whether the money is of the civic body, or generated by the user for the civic body. We had some money generated for purchase of equipment that the civic body could/would not buy. We needed an endoscopy camera urgently, because the existing camera could/would not be repaired in time. As per requirement, we got quotations from three vendors. One of them was for about 48000 INR, the other two were for about 170000 and 360000 INR respectively. We were very happy for having found one which was so economical. It was good. I had been using one of those for 10 years without any malfunction or repair. Unfortunately the proposal was returned by the trustees of the fund where we had put our money.
"One quotation is very low. We want to know how. It looks very suspicious."
"But a high quotation would be suspicious" I said. "What is wrong if we have to pay less money? Is that not the idea behind asking for 3 quotations?"
"You have to explain why it is so low."
"The equipment is perfectly fine. I am satisfied with it as a user. You have to ask the vendor why he is selling it at such a low profit, or why the others are selling at such high prices" I said.
"We do not deal with the vendors. You give the explanation. These are money matters, where we have to be very careful. The auditor will object to this transaction."
So I called the auditor and asked him if he would object.
"Of course not" he said. "Scams are about paying out more than required. There is no problem if you are paying less."
The guardians of our money could not be convinced. Finally I made a comparative chart of features of the three cameras, and showed that this camera did not have a feature for recording, which the others had, but which we did not need. The answer still did not come, because the chief trustee was in a foreign land looking after daughter's childbirth, another was pregnant herself and was away, and half of the other trustees were on a vacation. Three months later the trustees wrote back "you may place the order with the lowest bidder" and no statement on any of the objections I had raised.
The tragedy does not end there. Now two months have passed and the vendor refuses to supply the camera for reasons unstated. In our opinion it has to do with devaluation of the INR in the three months lost, so that he cannot afford to supply it at the rate quoted.
"Sir, do the trustees really know what they are doing?" one frustrated staff member asked me.
"They do" I said.
"I men, do they have any idea of what is right and what is wrong?"
"We have to ask them" I said.
"Do they understand what they are doing to the institute, and if they do, do they care?"
"I don't know" I said, "and even if I do, there is nothing we can do about it."

Next To The Heart

We have a staff member who does not carry her own pen to write. Even when she goes to sign the muster, knowing well that a pen is required for that purpose, she goes without one, and asks for one from whoever happens to be there. If there is no one, or whoever is there does not have a pen, she waits until someone comes along with a pen. I had observed this for years, but could not see the reason for it.
"Why do you not carry your pen?" I finally asked her one day, when my curiosity got the better of me.
"Just like that" she said after a moment's pause.
"But if there is no one with a pen here, you waste time waiting for one to arrive" I said. "It is a lot easier carrying a pen. It is no great trouble carrying one, is it?"
"No, actually I have one."
"Huh? Where?" I asked.
"Here" she said calmly and proceeded to produce it by putting her hand close to her heart. As a child I had seen elderly women keep their money safely next to their hearts when they went out. Then for years I had not seen that. Now here was one keeping a pen next to the heart, but never to be produced. My face must have revealed my embarrassment. She signed with that pen that day. A few years have passed since then, with the same old routine of borrowing a pen. I have not dared ask that question again.