Toddler With A Greenback

मी जराशा घाईत होतो. बाह्यरुग्णविभागात नेहमीपेक्षा जास्त रुग्ण आले होते, आणि त्यांना तपासताना वेळ गेला होता. विभागाचे कार्यालय बंद होण्यापूर्वी काही कागदपत्रांवर सह्या करून ते जावक करणे गरजेहे होते, नाहीतर काही कामे उगाचच अडून पडली असती. रुग्णांच्या कक्षांमधून जात होता. रुग्णांचे नातेवाईक कक्षांबाहेर उभे होते, बाकड्यांवर किंवा जमिनीवर बसलेले होते, किंवा इथेतिथे फिरत होते. रस्त्यांत एक या मंडळींसाठी चहा-कॉफीचा स्टॉल होता, जिथे थोडी गर्दी होती. त्यामुळे तेथून जातांना माझा वेग इच्छा नव्हती तरीही मंदावला. तेव्हढ्यात एक नुकतेच चालायला लागलेले वर्षाच्या आंतले मूल दुडदुड चालत माझ्या रस्त्यांत आले. त्याच्या हातांत शंभर रुपयांची एक नोट होती. ती दोन्ही हातांत पकडून ते मूल त्या चहा-कॉफीवाल्याकडे निघाले होते. बहुतेक त्याला तिथली बिस्किटे हवी होती. ती विकत घ्यावी लागतात हे त्याला कोणीतरी शिकविलेले असावे. मूल गरीबाचे दिसत होते.
"अरे, हे बाळ कोणाचे आहे?" मी जरा मोठ्या स्वरांत विचारले. "त्याच्या हातांत पैसे आहेत. ते कोठेतरी पडतील किंवा कोणीतरी ते काढून घेईल."
"ते माझे आहे" असे म्हणून जमिनीवर बसलेला एक किरकोळ अंगयष्टीचा माणूस उठला. त्याने जाऊन त्या मुलाचा हात धरला आणि त्याला आपल्या बसायच्या जागी नेले. मुलाला ते आवडले नाही. हात खेचून आणि अंग मागे टाकून त्याने आपला निषेध व्यक्त केला.
"आईच्या औषधाचे पैसे आहेत ते बाळा" तो माणूस म्हणाला. बाळाला ते बहुधा ते कळले नसावे. पण आईचे नाव ऐकून त्याला आईची आठवण आली असावी. पैसे विसरून ते आईला नजरेने शोधू लागले. आई जवळच्या कक्षांत रुग्णशय्येवर आहे हे कळण्याचे त्याचे वय नव्हते. शंभर रुपये मोडून बाळाला बिस्किटे-चॉकलेटे घेण्याची त्याच्या बडिलांची ऐपत दिसत नव्हती. त्याच्या आईचा आजार बरे करणे डॉक्टरांच्या हातात होते, पण त्यांची गरिबी दूर करणे रुग्णालयांतल्या कोणाच्याच हातांत नव्हते. रस्त्यांत आलेले मुळ दूर झाले होते, रस्ता मोकळा होता, काम शिल्लक होते, पण मन थकले होते आ्णि पावले जड झाली होती. नजरेसमोरून ते निष्पाप मूल आणि त्याचे मनाला जाणवणारे भविष्या हटत नव्हते.

Professional Tax Chalan

The state government charges all professional people, in service or self employed, engaged in business or otherwise, a tax called professional tax. For salaried people, it is easy. The employer deducts it at source and pays it into the state government's treasury. Others are not so lucky. They have to pay it online in modern times. Until recently, the only way was to fill up a professional tax chalan in triplicate, and deposit it with the tax amount in a bank that accepted professional tax payments. This procedure still works for individuals.

One problem is that the chalan is not available in the bank where one goes to pay the tax. So one has to go to the government's professional tax office just to get the chalan. It would be an easy thing to make it available on the government's website. The government probably does not think so, or has not thought about it at all. So one has to rely on people who have uploaded images of that chalan at various sites on the web. These images are not of a very good quality. Their prints are poor and not easily readable. After struggling to get one year after year, I finally made one (from an original, but only in English) in a word processor, converted it into a PDF file, and now have made it available. It looks as follows (click on it to expand it).

It is available as a PDF file here. Use it at your own risk. I have not asked the professional tax office people if it is OK in their opinion.

Role Model Effect Or Same Horoscope?

There is an ancient text called Bhrigu Samhita (भ्रुगू संहिता) in which the horoscope of every living individual is written down. The predictions given in it are said to be totally accurate. Even without it, there are experts who write horoscopes of people based on their time of birth, and predict their future. I don't know if it is an accurate science or not. What I am going to describe here is an ancient story (folklore) from the times of the famous king who built a hospital for poor people in his kingdom. You can read about it here and here.

There was a Guru (गुरू) in the Ashram (आश्रम) attached to the hospital. He had his own ideas about many things, including how his life should be. He had his own peculiarities, including physical characteristics, quirks, behavioral traits, medical conditions, and fate. He probably had a mentor effect on a pupil (विद्यार्थी) of his, who followed in his Guru's footsteps. His Guru passed away sometime, and the student became older and became a Guru of the same subject. Here is a comparison of the two.

	Guru	Student
Height	Medium	Medium
Weight	Medium	Medium, until he developed a paunch.
Loved to throw his weight around	Yes	Yes
Complexion	Deeply tanned	Deeply tanned
Teachers’ politics	Leader	Leader
Behaved like a boss	Yes	Yes
Had a coterie	Yes	Yes
Treated students like dirt	Yes	Yes
Made students queue up for signatures on homework (ग्रुहपाठ)	Yes	Yes
Wore thick glasses so that one could not make out at whom he was looking	Yes	Yes
Allegedly blessed women students by जादूकी झप्पी (magical hug)	Yes	Yes
Warrior: destroyed people who spoke against him	Yes	Yes
Had king’s illness: राजयक्ष्मा	Yes	Yes
Had rich people’s illness: मधुमेह	Yes	Yes
Had different standards of behavior to suit different people and situations	Yes	Yes
Was loved by people	No	No
Died early	Yes	(* See note)

* The last feature is left blank for the readers to guess. A hint is offered. It depends on whether they had the same horoscope, or the गुरू  was the mentor of the विद्यार्थी. The answer will be yes if they shared a horoscope in भ्रुगू संहिता, and no if it was a mentor effect on the विद्यार्थी. Those who do not want the hassle of thinking can Google ancient folklore for the answer.

Taking Inspiration From David?

I wonder if the persons involved knew about the story of David and Goliath. But their activities did make me think of that biblical story.

The traffic police of the city are quite active at times. They tow away vehicles parked at places they do not like used as parking places. It is a great revenue generating activity. The towing trucks are owned and operated by private parties, and a traffic cop rides shotgun. It is said he turns a blind eye to alleged illegal activities of the operators like opening locked doors of parked cars by passing in hooks, so that a hand brake can be released and the car can be put in neutral gear, so that it can be towed away. Such nonsense! No government official would do any such thing. Anyway that has nothing to do with this story. I just took the opportunity to say what people say and to praise the government employees.

A monorail track has been built in front of our front gate. The space below the rail is free. No cars can drive there as there are pillars at intervals. It is quite tempting to park cars there, and many drivers do exactly that. Though there is no sign put up by traffic authorities that parking is not allowed there, traffic cops get parked vehicles towed away regularly. A couple of days ago, there was this huge crane parked there. I was wondering what a towing van operator and a traffic cop would do if they noticed this. While I was thinking about it, along came a towing van and was halted at the front end of the crane.

They spent quite some time pondering what to do. A couple of enthusiastic workers on that van fitted their towing chain to the crane and the driver tried to tow it away. They probably needed that one, because they got paid a fixed amount per vehicle and crane would fetch lots more than an ordinary car. The wheels of the towing truck spinned in place, but the crane did not move even by a millimeter. The traffic cop also must have realized that he would not find place to keep the crane in his police station even if he managed to tow it away. So they unhooked the towing chain and went looking for prey more of their own size. If they had taken inspiration from the story of David who had defeated Goliath, they did not do justice to it. David had defeated Goliath, while they went away defeated.

I am not sure if they actually meant to tow the crane or if they were play acting. It is possible one of them wanted to post a video of this on Youtube. I did not go too near to take this picture, because government officials have the power to arrest people for obstructing government servants while carrying out their duties. Taking a picture can be construed as obstructing a government servant in a democratic country.

Bees Share Birds' Water Dish

We have put up a water dish for birds on our window sill. Though there are a number of birds in our neighborhood, only crows drink from it. You can read about it here.

Now the summer is approaching. The weather is such that the crows are quite thirsty, and we have to fill the water dish five or six times a day, while doing it twice a day used to be enough in winter. The dish is quite small, but we cannot put a bigger container on that narrow window sill. Though the crows put off other birds, they have apparently been unsuccessful in putting off the bees. Here is a picture of two bees drinking from the water dish (pointed out by arrows). I wonder where the bees used to drink water before they started to visit our water dish. Actually I had not thought that bees went anywhere to drink water. That is quite silly of me, as I should have known every living thing drinks water.

A New Nightmare

A few days ago, the newspapers had a news item on use of cow's urine as disinfectant to clean government offices. If you missed out on that, you can read all about it here and here.

After the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (स्वच्छ भारत अभियान) launched by the government, which was adopted by the civic body, all civic employees were told in no uncertain terms to clean their places of employment every Friday between 5:30 P.M. and 7:30 P.M. The civic administration welcomed it with a glad heart - it had given them something to do that did not involve paying money for. You can read all about it here.

With the civic body adopting all of the government's splendid ideas, it was logical to expect that disinfection with cow's urine would be the next one to be adopted. There are cats, dogs, rats and mice in campus. Keeping a few cows would be no big deal. They could graze on the front lawn. That would have two positive points. The food for the cows would be free. The grazing would save on the lawn mowing expenses too.

When it happens, we will have to use cow's urine to fumigate the operation theater (it is called fogging now) and to scrub prior to performing operations, and if there is any surplus urine, drink it in place of tea between two operations to build up energy again. The Operation Theater (OT) would then become Holy Operation Theater (HOT).

Government, Cows and Us

I am a vegetarian at heart. I mean I eat vegetarian food by choice, and eat meat only if I have no choice. I don't eat red meat because it is said to be bad for the heart. I don't eat beef because my religious teaching is not to eat beef. The state government has recently banned slaughter of cows, and possession of beef. The government also promotes drinking cow's urine.  I do not express any personal viewpoint on these issues. There are all sorts of reactions to it from all sorts of people. Here is a reaction I came across.

Gudi Padwa

Wishing you Happy Gudi Padwa
A Happy New Year

(Note: the animation is not seen on an Android phone. It is not awesome, but if you wish to see it, see it on a desktop or a laptop in a web browser.)

aiwa-naiwa Scam

There is a place in my city where electronic gadgets and computers are sold. It is not a wholesale market, but there are a lot of shops selling similar goods. I used to get computer parts there when my computer needed any. One day (a long time ago) I decided I would buy a portable AM/FM radio, tape player and recorder. There were a number of shops, of which I entered one.
"Take this one" the shopkeeper said. He looked sly (in hindsight at least).

I looked at it. The name of the manufacturer, 'aiwa' was on the front of the equipment. aiwa was a Japanese consumer-electronics company. I was impressed, because he was selling it for just Rs. 350/-. I paid the amount without any haggling, and brought it home. It worked for a few days, and then died. As with other items sold in shops on that road, there was no warranty for goods purchased there. I had lost my money. I looked at it carefully. There was a sticker, which said 'No. 1'. It implied the equipment was No. 1. The sticker was just to the left of the name 'aiwa'. I trust people, but not when I am cheated. I lifted the sticker from its edge using my finger nail. The name was 'Naiwa', and the sticker was covering the N, so that it looked like 'aiwa'.

It was brilliant. No one from the company 'aiwa' could catch them for using their brand name. A buyer like me could not drag the seller to a court, because it was not a crime to put a sticker on the equipment.
It has been many years. I have still not thrown away that 'Naiwa' radio/tape player/recorder, because it reminds me that I am not very smart, and there are plenty of crooks out there who can fool me. 

Equal Streets and Us

In November 2014, there was an ad, (or was it a news item?), which invited people to do the following. It is on their website if you wish to see it..

JOIN EQUAL STREETS EVERY SUNDAY!

There was an invitation to join them as they reclaimed their streets, to walk the line and join the journey:
They wanted to make a difference together. Then there were pictures in the Times of India almost every week, showing how well dressed people sat on the pavements while their children played on the streets, how some people displayed their craft to others, how some people taught children how to do things and have fun. The initiative was jointly with Times of India, and there was a lot of publicity. There were no cars permitted on the said roads at those times.

I wonder why these elite people took so long to see what the poor masses of India have been doing all along. Boys have been playing cricket on the roads irrespective of the traffic on Sundays and holidays. According to law, it is a crime to play on the road and obstruct traffic. When it becomes too much, sometimes police come and drive the boys away. Other children play other games on the streets. They do this because they have no playgrounds, no money to pay for club memberships, and anyway those clubs would not take in such poor children in rags. Then one wonders why these people who move in cars and create the traffic themselves on other days want to play on the streets and block traffic.

Is it slumming? For those who do not understand what is slumming, the meaning can be found by doing a Google search for "to slum". I found the following meaning.

To slum: to spend time at a lower social level than one's own through curiosity or for charitable purposes.

I cannot find any charitable purpose in this movement, but there could be some purpose that does not meet the eye.

A Psychiatrist Who Rocked

We are not speaking of the verb 'to rock' which means 'to be really great'. We are speaking of it with the meaning 'to move to and fro in one place'.

There was a psychiatrist who was a good psychiatrist. But he had higher aspirations. So he decided to dabble in administration. He took up a job of an administrative head, to be carried out along with the job of a psychiatrist. Being a friend, I warned him that being an administrator in a government or civic organization was not just administration, but was more of pleasing people with greater power, and that would be quite stressful to him, considering his straightforward nature. He thought he could manage. So he continued. Or perhaps the desire to wield power overpowered his caution. I left him to his work and continued with mine. After a few months, I met him again.
"You, know, I have no desire to hold on to power that I have. That's why I can continue doing my job" he said.
"Hm..." I said. I did not know where this was going, but I decided to wait and see.
"But it really gets to be too much at times" he said. "The political pressure, the pressure of higher ups at head office - all that is not good."
"Hm..." I said. I had an idea where this all was going.
"Now I have started feeling I should give this all up. I am continuing because I am really doing some good work, which I could not do when I was not the administrative head."
This all sounded fine. But his actions did not lend credence to his speech. He was clasping his hands together and was rocking to and fro, like people who are under stress do. This action is described by psychiatrists as one which reminds one of the time spent in his mother's arms, who soothed him as a baby by rocking him. What was disturbing was that here was a senior psychiatrist who had treated hundreds of people like this, and was doing it himself.
"I think you are severely stressed" I said. "You should give this up and go back to being just a psychiatrist".
I don't know if he liked the advice. Eventually he probably stepped on enough toes and someone else replaced him. Now he seems happier. 

Naughty Father - Naughty Son

The woman was not only quite emaciated, but was looking tired and old too. But she was in the ward for pregnant women. Such an old woman with a pregnancy was not so common in our practice.
"Sir, this woman is admitted because she is HIV positive" my Registrar said. HIV is the virus that causes the dreaded disease AIDS.
"How old is she?" I asked.
"She said she was 28."
"Huh?" I said.
"Yes, Sir. She looks quite old. But she has a small child."
A small child ran to her from the door of the ward, said something, and ran out again. It was just three years old."
"That was her child" I asked.
"Yes, Sir."
"Is her husband HIV positive too?"
"Yes, Sir. We have referred him for treatment to the HIV center."
We finished round of that ward and went to another ward. On the way, the same child ran across our path, stumbled on a kitten, jumped, ran again, only to be caught and picked up by a man who looked like a laborer. The child giggled, the man grinned, and it was a happy moment for them.
"That is the HIV positive patient's husband" the Registrar said. "The child is always playing here. Quite a naught boy!"
I knew they were naughty in different ways, but could not help saying "Naughty Father, Naughty Son! No wonder that woman looks so old and tired at 28."

Macho Women in Hospital

In olden days, there used to be macho men. Even now there are macho men. But whoever had heard of macho women? Someone had made a movie with the name 'They call me macho woman' in 1989. Other than that, there are few references to a macho woman. But now times have changed. We find macho women right at my workplace. I am not including the women security guards dressed in all black, like black cat commandos. Their uniforms incite terror in babies, but otherwise they look like other women.

I am talking about other women. There was one head clerk. I heard about her one story from other people, and read about it in the next day's newspaper. I knew this one used to be quite rude to doctors and administrative people. She was small, petite, and did not look macho at all.  But probably looks can be deceptive. One day she had a disagreement with the Deputy Administrative Chief, because he transferred her to another office as disciplinary action for doing something she (in his opinion) should not have done. So she went to see him, shouted at him, and held him by his collar and is said to have roughed him up a bit. He lodged a police complaint, and after an inquiry, she was transferred to another institute. He got so scared after this episode that he proceeded on long leave to recover from the mental trauma.

Then there was another one. She was from the healthcare sector. Her ordinary speech used to be in deca- or hectobels, instead of decibels. I understand there is no unit called decabel or hectobel, but I have used these words just to make the reader understand the volume of her speech. She was always fighting this person or that, sometimes both this person and that. She had an ongoing feud with her senior. The other day she went to ask this senior for an explanation for something she alleged the senior had done. The senior got scared and screamed for help when this woman allegedly threw a paper weight at her, and when that move was blocked, settled for a pincushion. A police complaint was duly registered. Further developments are awaited.

I have not witnessed both of these acts, and know about them only through sources like the newspapers and hospital complaints. If you do not believe these stories, perhaps we can arrange to get you introduced to these macho women, so that you can antagonize them and see what happens yourself. Our emergency surgical services and trauma center have just become functional after renovation and upgrade, and that may help manage the after effects.

Death Throes or Poltergeist Activity?

It affected our music system first. It was a quite expensive system manufactured by Panasonic. It worked well while it worked. Then one day it started putting out its CD tray like one puts out one's tongue for fun as a child, or as an adult if asked to do so by the doctor. Since the tray would be out, there would be no music. I opened the system and cleaned all dust inside, which was very little any way. It did not work. Then it started  running through all its menus in succession, which I could read in the display window. The only menu command it did not go through was the play command. Finally I pushed the tray inside with more than reasonable force and switched off the power supply, so that it would not put out the tray again. It does all of this every time I put it on to see if it is cured. I did not try to get it repaired, because it was easier to buy a new one. I did that and the new one is working fine.

Then my Amazon Kindle showed this activity. First its screen went all white, like deathly pallor. I charged it for almost two days, as was suggested by someone on a forum on the internet. Then its charging light and finally its screen came on. It started working. I switched it off and continued to do what I was doing when it displayed full function. Suddenly I noticed that it had switched itself on. This was something new. While I watched it, it started cycling through all of its screen savers. Then it started booting repeatedly. Finally it froze in early booting screen (with the picture of the tree it has, and a progress bar 1/10 filled below the tree). It has been like this ever since. Since Amazon does not repair Kindle, I opened it myself, and closed it when I found that there was no dust inside to clean, and no user serviceable parts that I could repair. I bought a Kindle Paperwhite, which is functioning OK.

I have not understood what happened with these electronic gadgets. Do all electronic devices get death throes like this, or is it Poltergeist activity, as was described in Harry Potter books by Ms. Rowling? Since I do not understand either of them, I am willing to believe both explanations, or even a third explanation, if there is one.

Leicester Phone Number Scam Affects Me

I started getting a number of calls that started with 0116 and were of 11 digits each (including zero). I had missed them all but the last one on day one, because I had been away from the phone. The last time I picked up the phone, I heard the phone ringing at the other end, instead of someone speaking, as is supposed to happen when someone calls you. So someone had rigged the phone such that when I picked up the phone, it would ring somewhere and I would become the caller rather than the person whom someone had called. I also realized that the number was from abroad. That meant I would be billed heavily for the call as a caller, a call that I had no desire to respond to, to start with. I did all this thinking fast enough so that I disconnected the call after the first ring at the other end.
The next day I got a few more calls from the same initial digits in the numbers, though the last couple of digits were different. I rejected the calls. Then I did a Google search and found out the following information.

1. 0116 area code was for Leicester, UK.
2. One can buy these numbers, so that the recipient of the calls believes the caller is from Leicester, UK, while he could be anywhere in the world, where the calls would be diverted by the company who sold these numbers. Read more about it HERE. This company seems to be doing legitimate business, as far as I can see. But someone is probably using the service for other purposes.
3. There is new telephone scam, reported by Trading Standards officers, Leicester, UK. Read more about it HERE. The recipient is asked to pay money to stop getting these type of calls. It seems a number of people do that.
4. In the numbers I had received the calls from, only the last two digits were changing. So one will have to block only 20 numbers to stop getting calls from these spammers/fraudsters. I wish MTNL permitted blocking telephone numbers with a wildcard. Then all calls from Leicester, UK could be blocked at one go, using 0116*. Of course one could not do it if one had friends in Leicester, UK.

I hope this helps people out there, whom someone tries to trick as I was tricked. If I am wrong in my thinking anywhere, please email me and correct my thinking. Thanks.

Kalu The Hospital Cat

Our hospital is very stray animal friendly. Some of them behave as if they are pets. We used to have a lot of dogs awhile ago. Now they are fewer, though not by virtue of any measures taken by the administration. The administration is still friendly towards them, animal activists please note. Now the cats are in greater number. They keep having babies, and the babies are quite cute. One such cat, who is fondly called Kalu by those who have seen him, is such a resident cat. We could have called him our sitting cat, but he never sits anywhere for long. He keeps roaming the corridors, the wards, the pantries, and outside the building. His territory is quite wide. At one end it extends to the canteen. At the other end it extends to the new tower.

Kalu actually reigns over this territory. No other male cat ventures in his territory. Looking at his photograph above, you can make out he is a veteran of many a war. His right ear is stumpy, not due to a congenital malformation. His right eye is almost gone. His right foreleg was fractured some time ago, when he used to climb the steps not like normal cats, but all four feet on one step before proceeding to another step. Now he is healed. Rumor is that the dogs are less in number thanks to terror established by Kalu.

When Kalu goes through the antenatal ward, the pregnant women close their eyes, out of fear that their babies will be born as ugly as Kalu if they look at him. Such superstition! When babies in the pediatrics ward refuse to go to sleep, the mothers tell them, "go to sleep, baby, or Kalu will come." Then they go to sleep. When babies of visitors trouble Kalu's progeny by pulling their tails, Kalu arrives and just looks at them sternly out of his one and half eyes, and they behave.

When a visitor remarked that Kalu seemed to be a pet cat in the hospital, Kalu was angry. He just glared at the visitor, saying in his thought bubble (like Garfield does) 'I am not pet. These people around me are my pets." That visitor shut up immediately.

Hibiscus Variations

One of our potted Hibiscus plants keeps flowering differently.

Textured petals, the usual ones being thin and smooth.

Another textured one on the right, smooth one on left for comparison.

Back view of the same ones..

Apparently four-petaled, two petals overlapping.

7th February 2019:

Our plant giving exclusively white flowers for years gave a pink one today - along with seven white ones. I think it was rather auspicious - today being 'Maghi Chaturthi' a day of religious importance for us, related to Lord Ganesha, who loves Hibiscus flowers.

13th February 2020

Flowers which bloomed on one plant on the same day. A. Flowers with multiple petals, B. Flowers with a single row of 5 petals, C. Flower with a single row of only three petals.

Flower with a petals attached to or a part of the stamen.

Ganesha in Hibiscus Flower

We have a Hibiscus plant that keeps on flowering anomalously. I will show some such flowers some other time. About a week ago it had a flower that was quite curious. It reminded me of a class IV employee in our hospital, who claims to be blessed enough to see Lord Ganesha in fruit and vegetables. One day he stopped me in the corridor of the hospital, pulled out his mobile phone, and showed me what he claimed was Lord Ganesha in one tomato and a brinjal he had purchased in the market. I was probably not as blessed as he was, and all I could see was a tomato and a brinjal of shapes different from the regular ones.
"Lord Ganesha is in everything around us, including us" I tried to tell him. He stopped me in between and talked about how fortunate he was to have God visit him in this way. I gave up, congratulated him, and went my way.
This fellow is not the only one who sees God in this way. A shopkeeper in front of our house once found the Lord in a tomato, and the entire neighborhood flocked to his shop to see. I wondered why the God visited these people and not others. The curious shape of our Hibiscus flower made me think of all that, because I was sure these people would surely see Lord Ganesha in that flower, especially when Hibiscus was considered the favorite flower of Lord Ganesha. I added a few black lines to the flower's photograph.

Despite my art, the flower does not look like Lord Ganesha to me. See if it does to you. Perhaps you may be blessed enough.

29-01-2020

In the same theme, someone saw Lord Ganesha in a tomato.

Beware Of Backpackers

A backpack is very common in Mumbai. Not only do the school and college students use backpacks, but even adults going to work do. It is a bit of a problem when children, those bundles bursting with energy, rush into a city bus and push their way through. The backpacks,sometimes  bigger than the children themselves, push people this way and that. Old people can even fall with such pushing.

Another problem with these backpacks is that they are made of material which is quite thick and rough to feel from the outside. It can be quite traumatic to the skin, especially of older people. A few days ago I had to buy some equipment for my department. I took a train. When it arrived at the station, a lot of people rushed in. They ran on all sides, and the backpack of one (or more) of them rubbed past my left elbow. It was hurting quite a lot while I stood in the train compartment, unable to move due to people pressing in from all sides. When I got off the train at my destination, I checked the elbow. About 1.5" diameter patch of skin had been scraped off my elbow by that backpack. The blood had clotted. I could attend to it only after I reached home after finishing my purchases.

I remembered one of the previous bosses at the institute telling a foreign visitor, "the public transport is not at all suitable for people like us. We have to travel by airconditioned cars." I had thought that was a sentence reeking of a superiority complex. Looking at my injury, and wincing every time someone touched it or brushed against it made me think he was perhaps right. I have traveled by train again after that incident. No further injuries occurred. Perhaps I should remember that I have become old and should avoid boarding trains and buses when they are crowded. Perhaps people who visit this city will read this blog post and be careful when they are here.

Mask For Siamese Twins

Surgical masks are available in sterile form, one each in sealed plastic bags. Those are for buyers with a small requirement. Our hospital sometimes buys them in bulk. They are not sterile. They are autoclaved prior to use. I found the mask shown below in the drum with such autoclaved masks.

There are two masks, with three ties at three corners each, and a long tie joining the fourth corners of the two masks. It must have been manufactured in some small scale industry, and the worker sewing the ties (tapes) to the masks must have forgotten to cut the long one joining the two. It reminded me of Siamese twins or conjoined twins. I showed it to my colleagues and residents in the OT. They were also surprised to see such a mask. There was merriment all round when I said, "It must have been meant for use by Siamese twins".