Madras Yenga Madras…

Madras Yenga Madras…

Every year for Madras Day I do a blog post on the city I grew up in and lived for a majority of my life. Having had my entire life turned topsy-turvy recently (in a good way) I was noticeably reluctant to do one this year as I am pretty badly exhausted by the time I get home from work and sitting down in front of the computer to type sounds less and less appealing as the days pass by. But enough of that. My blogger friend Susan Deborah has initiated a blog theme on “what I would like to change in madras” and she has provided me the much needed spark to park my butt down and type this post. 

So what would I like to change in madras? Well, off-hand I would say “nothing at all, the city’s fine as it is”. But that sounds too glib, doesn’t it?  On further reflection I do find that there is one thing I would love to change in madras, but more about that later in the post. Right now as part of madras day celebrations I would like to record for posterity (hahahha….feel free to laugh too- at my expense) a few unforgettable landmarks of my childhood days – which are now in the unique peril of being forgotten by everyone except a certain generation who grew up in the madras of those times. 

I would like to record my remembrances here of a few places like: 

Maskanchavadi – also known as Koli market (Chicken market)colloquially, it was THE place to go to buy a pet, any pet you fancy- right from a cockatoo, an angora rabbit, love birds, mynah birds,  any kinda bird or dog or animal you fancy- you name it and the dealers there could procure it for you. The maskanchavadi market was at a tri-street junction off Broadway, right opposite the old Broadway theatre building and it used to function on Sunday mornings- when the crowds came from everywhere to just look around the menagerie. But repeated raids by our efficient local police force to check for illegal/rare bird selling businesses has driven down the entire market to death and it now exists as a paltry few shops selling broiler chicken for the table. Times move on and what was once considered commonplace- now resides in memory as a quaint old place.

Satti-Panai Kadai – right off koli market as you keep moving towards the interior of Broadway you run smack into the Pots and Pans market- where once people who cooked exclusively in earthenware pans and drank water off mud pots used to come to buy the stuff. Now that the market has shifted to aluminum and eversilver (stainless steel) cookware the pots and pans of earthenware have died a natural death and returned to earth (so to say).

Roundu-Kuzhai- As the name indicates it was a big rotunda with a municipal pump bang right in the middle of it all with various streets branching off in all directions. It was situated off Mint Street and connected most of the other streets parallel to mint street in one single place. People used to give address locations as “you know round kozha? Take the 2^nd right….etc” in the pre-Google maps era. The area was also notorious for being the place where most riots started and you often learnt that some political party or the other had declared a bandh/hartal when the stones started flying around the roundu kozha area.

Broadway Theatre/Padmanabha Theatre/Prabhat Theatre/Murugan Talkies- none of which exist as theatres now but places where a lot of film history was made. In the end of their cycle as viable entities going to murugan was often synonymous with going to watch a bit-film….you know the ones where in the midst of a normal/boring movie they insert a little pornographic slide or two just to wake up sleepy audiences? That’s what I mean…Murugan along with Parangimalai Jothi theatre was the pre internet era’s easy access porno knowledge providers to a whole generation of boys growing up without official sex-ed.

Krishnappa Naicken Tank Agraharam- would you believe an honest to god kumbakonam style agraharam (a brahmin community only) kind of locality in the midst of busy Broadway? Yeah, it existed once- situated roundabout krishnappa’s tank- in concentric streets off the tank area.

Finally Diamond Tea Stall- the place where boys turned into men- the fag end of Mint Street right opposite mint bus terminus- this was THE hangout spot for all the rowdies and roughnecks of GT area- where awestruck people used to point them out as celebrities. The language was all pukka madras bhashai – starting with kasmalam and asking about nenjullu erukkara manja soru. And dress code? Strictly Lungi…pants were for sissies.

I could go on and on…but what the point? These places even though they no longer exist physically still stay on as evergreen memories in all long term residents of George Town area. 

And oh about the changing madras thing? I would of course like to change madras’s politicinas – the ones who didn’t hesitate to jettison the wonderful old name madras for chennai under the guise of langauge pride in the hopes of a few paltry extra votes.
 

No Shame In Saying I Don’t Know, Is There?

No Shame In Saying I Don’t Know, Is There?

So they called me today all of a sudden in the middle of my canteen break (for those of my readers from countries which were never under the shadow of the British Empire – a canteen break is a midmorning visit to the in-house cafeteria – say around 11am- for a coffee/tea) with an emergency call and unlooked for appearance of a postgraduate student standing beside my cafeteria table, staring morosely down at my tea before saying “they want you back at the department sir, something not right with the laser”.

So I leave my half drunk tea on the canteen table with a look of longing and hurry back to the surgery room screaming “What? What? What? What happened?” to find the two guilty persons who tried to use the laser unit in my absence (temporary/tea break) adopting an unconcerned “we are not responsible” look. Seems they had tried to do a case (a surgery) all by themselves and the laser had malfunctioned and they tried to lay the blame solely on me saying that “you were the last person to use it” to which I replied irritably “yeah and I left it in good working condition just a few minutes ago”. For I knew they were trying to pin the blame of the malfunctioning unit on me and try to appropriate my next month’s salary towards repairs for the at-fault laser unit- on the principle that the last person gets blamed and foots the bill. 

So I went up to the unit and checked it and found it was working fine. Surprised I asked them to demo to me what they were doing with the laser. So they sat there the two of them and applied the laser to the anesthetized patient and waited for it to start cutting and then after a few minutes they turned towards me and said “See, its not cutting”. Whereupon I asked one of them to vacate the seat and sat down took the laser in my hand put it near the surgical site, operated the foot switch, cut the tissue and showed them “see, it works now, by magic”. The poor fools had not realized that the laser operated with a foot switch which they had comfortably left all alone between the two of them and neither of them operating it and they had thought that you just need to point a laser at something for it to start working. And of course they had thought they could do it in my absence in the mistaken belief that what he does we can do too- without learning at least the basic functions of the machine. 

Which shows once again that people would pretend anything except to accept their ignorance of something. I hope they all realize soon that it’s never too late or too much to ask for help and its definitely no shame to say those three magic words “I don’t know”.

Lasers Vs Conventional Surgeries

Lasers Vs Conventional Surgeries

For those who ask me why lasers, well I got a one word answer for you (well, actually two words) – no sutures. Remember those sharp curved long needle things with threads attached to them which doctors poke into your body umpteen times and use weird contortionist positions to tie them into knots (knot after knot after knot?) well those stitches or sutures are “gone with the wind” baby when it comes to laser surgeries. Now coming to the other side of the argument that lasers are expensive to use and why surgeons are pushing lasers more than scalpel surgeries all the time and is it because it’s convenient for them and not for the patient. Well, I agree that surgeons more and more prefer to use lasers nowadays for even the simplest and shortest of surgeries. But it’s not only because of its convenience given that a laser surgery is done in a clean and bloodless field for laser automatically coagulates (clots) the blood vessels- thereby preventing bleeding and thereby allowing the surgeon to see what actually he is doing with sharp instruments and voila you get great results, which is what you want right?. And because the surgeon can work calmly with no blood and clear vision of the operating site – even in extremely bleeding sites like, for example, the tongue which is notorious for its rich blood supply and for bleeding excessively even for minor injuries and hence tongue injuries are a real bitch to treat (sample case below of a tongue tie patient -with a pronounced lisp- being treated by me with a laser during a tongue release surgery). And of course the USP of lasers – no stitches. Now tell me isn’t a laser worth the price?

The Tongue-tied patient

Me using the Laser to cut

Pulling back the tongue with a temporary stay suture to expose the undersurface

The End. Finis. Bye-bubyee

சென்னையில் ஒரு ஆட்டோ ட்ரிப்........

சென்னையில் ஒரு ஆட்டோ ட்ரிப்........

An Auto-Rickshaw in Chennai

 சென்னையின் ஆட்டோ ஓட்டுனர்களை பற்றி முகநூலில் பல பாராட்டுகளைப் படித்து விட்டு என்னோட அனுபவங்களையும் எழுத தோணியது. 

அன்மையில் கொச்சியில் இருந்து திருவனந்தபுரம் மெயிலில் சென்னை சென்ட்ரல் ரயில் நிலையத்தில் அதிகாலையில் வந்து இறங்கிய நான் அண்ணா நகரில் உள்ள என் வீட்டுக்கு செல்ல முற்பட்ட போது ஒரு உன்மையை கண்டறிந்தேன். அது- நாயை குளிப்பாட்டி நடுவீட்டில் வயத்தார் போல எவ்வளவு தான் மீட்டர் ரேட்டை அரசு ஏற்றினாலும் ஆட்டோ ஓட்டுனர்கள் திருந்தும் வாய்பேயில்லை என்பது தான்.

“அண்ணா நகர் போகனுமா? ரூபாய் ஏறநூற்று ஐயம்பது {Rs.250 } குடுங்க” யென்று கேட்ட ஆடோகரர் இடம் “என்னது? நான் எப்பவும் என்பது இல்லை நூறு மேலே குடுத்ததில்லையே” யென்று சொல்ல அவர் என்னை முறைக்க டென்ஷன் ஆனா நான் “ஏதோ Rs.150 என்றல் பரவாயில்லை எடுத்து எடுப்பில் ஒரேயடியா Rs.250 கேட்கறீங்க” யென்று நான் கேட்டதுக்கு அங்கு இருந்த ஆட்டோ ஓட்டுனர்கள் என்னை அதிர்ச்சியுடன் பார்த்து “Rs.150 இப்பல்லாம் மீட்டர் ரேட்டு தெரீயுமா?” என்று கேட்டனர்.

ஏதோ மீட்டர் ரேட்டுக்கு சவாரி சென்றால் அவமானத்தில் அவர் குடும்பத்துடன் தற்கொலை செய்துகொள்ள வேண்டியதுதான் போல பேசினார்கள். இது தான் உண்மை நிலை இன்றும் சென்னை ஆட்டோகளை பொறுத்தமட்டில். நம்பவில்லையென்றால் சென்ட்ரல்லுக்கோ இல்லை எக்மோர்ருக்கோ சென்று பார்க்கவும்.

இதில் வேடிக்கை என்னவென்றால் முன்தினம் கொச்சியில் அதே அண்ணா நகர் தொலைவிற்கு ஆட்டோவில் சென்றடைய மீட்டர்  Rs.26  ரூபாய் தான் வந்தது. நான் Rs. 30 ரூபாய் குடுத்ததும் ஆட்டோ ஓட்டுனர் எனக்கு சில்லறை நான்கு ரூபாய் திருப்பிக் கொடுத்தார். என் கண்ணில் ஆனந்த் கண்ணீர் வராத குறை.

ஆக ஆட்டோ ஓட்டுனர்களில் சில நல்லவர்களும் இருக்கிறர்கள். ஆனால் அவர்கள் சென்னையில் தான் இல்லை.

The Bliss Of Life

The Bliss Of Life

I had a talk with two contrasting characters today. The first one was a lady in her mid to late eighties. She popped in to my room at the free clinic and with an apology to start with she said that she was feeling feverish and wanted something for it and she couldn’t wait to see the general medicine specialist (who was the one supposed to see ordinary fevers) as the queues were long there while mine were comparatively shorter (fewer patients) that day. Even though I wasn’t supposed to be seeing the general physicians cases for him (too many ego problems might evolve from even such a harmless act), I thought of making an exception this one time- after all a mild fever was well within my treatment skills and so I wrote the necessary prescription for her, handed it to her and gestured to the next patient in line to come forward and take her seat.

But strangely she looked to be in no hurry to get up and leave to the pharmacy. As i watched and waited for her to leave she hemmed and hawed and made a strange request "Can you prescribe some vitamin tablets too for me doc?" she asked. That surprised me for I don’t usually allow my patients to dictate their treatments to me, for I am after all finally responsible if anything untoward happens. When I looked over at her in a puzzled sort of way she explained that she  was a spinster, had lived with and slaved for her sisters family all her life but recently her sister (much younger) had died and her nephews and nieces had considered their elderly aunt an extra burden and thrown her out of the house. She had tried to survive by doing odd jobs at a few houses and sleeping before a Vishnu temple in Triplicane but one night as she slept with a small bundle containing nothing but a couple of changes of dress under her head, even that had been stolen deftly in the night without waking her up and come morning she was left destitute in front of the temple with nothing on her.

After struggling with her pride for a few days she had turned to begging at the temple entrance for survival. But she still harbored hopes of getting some small job or the other to survive on so she could stop begging for alms. And she reasoned that to work she needed strength and to get strength she needed vitamins. I could have given her a long lecture about how just taking vitamin supplements in the absence of proper food would not be of much use but I desisted because it was no use- such advice would be wasted on people who believed vitamins were magic pills. Hence I did the only other thing I could think of at that time- took some money out of my pocket and gave it to her (despite the disapproving looks of all my staff) and told her to go have a hearty meal. And oh, i did give her a bunch of vitamin supplements as she desired.

The other person I talked to later that day was a girl in her mid twenties and who had gone through a relationship crisis and was spouting suicidal stuff. This was her second relationship and second break up in the short time- a very few months I had know her- so I couldn’t decide who really was in fault. Anyway after I gave her the standard lines i use for relationship advice- about how everyone gets their hearts broken kissing a few frogs before finding their true prince I switched off the chat window and sat there thinking over the contrast between the two characters- the old and young ladies - I had talked to that day.

The old lady had unknowingly showed the way to survive life- by trying to think her way out of her troubles while the young one was merely content to wallow in her misery. The old lady had lived a long and lonely life and she had been betrayed by all her relatives at the very end of it but still she wanted to make sure she had strength enough to work and stand on her own two feet. But like a warrior she was willing to keep on fighting till the very end. Contrast that with the young woman who had everything to go on but was ready to give up her prestigious job at a big firm because an in-office romance had gone bad and she couldn’t face her colleague’s gossips. I felt exasperated at the young woman, so much so that I wanted to give her a crack on the head and tell her to wake up and see the reality of life.

As the first lady showed us- life, all life is precious. It’s not handed over to us in a platter- even though we behave as if it was. Life is a struggle for every creature on earth but it’s only we humans who make too much of this struggle. In doing so we forget that life is also a joy, bliss of great intensity. Worries are forever with us; we are born with them and die with them. But that is no reason to forget to live life while we take a breath. Merely worrying on things we cannot change is going to get us nowhere and suddenly we would find ourselves old and feeble and not able to do anything about it even if we so desire to.

The trick is in finding the balance- to try to push our impossible worries away to a dark corner of our minds to deal with later and to continue to live daily life with awareness and joy. I know that many of you reading this will be thinking- go on, we don’t believe you, it’s easier said than done- but do, do believe me, i never preach what I haven’t practiced first. So rest assured it’s eminently do-able. Worrying changes nothing except hastening us to an early grave and to an eternity filled with regrets for things not done. Isn’t it far better to disregard it all and embrace life? To live life as fully as if we had no worries at all? The human mind is a fascinating creature- it feeds on what you tell it. So long as you keep thinking that your life is all joy- you can end up having a blissful life even if the end of the world is near. The choice as always - is yours. Make it with wisdom.