Durga Puja

Today is Viswakarma Puja.Usually this puja is celebrated 1 month
before Durga Puja but this year Durga Puja has come early such that
Mahalaya which is 1st day of Devipaksha falls tomorrow.On Mahalaya
traditionally over last 50-60years the famous Birendra Krishna Bhadra
started reciting Chandi Paath in his superb baritone voice over All
India Radio at 4am in the morning. I remember being woken up at 4am to
listen to the paath welcoming Ma Durga to the mortal world of her
parents.This practice has been continued over the years and though
Birendra Krishna Bhadra has passed away long back,to an average
Bengali, Mahalaya is synonomous with Birendra K Bhadra, so a recorded
version played every year as perpetuation of this practice.At
sunrise,an average Bemgali Hindu pays homage to his forebears by
performing puja and offering water to the parched souls of the
departed at the banks of Ganga or any nearby waterbody if no river is
present.The idol is installed at every mandap on the sixth day after Mahalaya Amabasya-Sasthi, wherever Puja is
celebrated bringing joy in the hearts of all true blue Bengali.

SEVEN AGES OF MAN

A time was there not so long ago,when I was not so old as I am now and not so young either when I used to think that I was very fit and strong.I thought I could work "n" number of hours without sleep or rest.I could do whatever physical and mental work that my job required.In short I could handle any situation but alas! my confidence has taken a dent in recent years as one after another of my vital organs have started to malfunction requiring corrective procedures for maintainence.First my eyes when I had an Acute Retinal Detachment, for which I had to have surgery in Chennai.Next was the turn of my Heart to develop an Acute Myocardial Infarction for which I had to undergo LIMA-RIMA Triple Coronay Arterial Bypass Graft Surgery after which I am alive to write this blog.Now the doctors tell me that due to my Retinal Laser Surgery, I have developed dense cataract of the same eye for which I must be operated pretty soon.
Well this reminds me of the famous lines from my Guru,William Shakespeare whose birthplace at Stratford on Avon, I had the extreme good fortune to visit last year.The lines are as follows:-
" All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.At first the infant,
Muking and puking in the nurse's arms;
Then the whining school boy,with satchel
And shining morning face,creeping like snail
Unwilling to school.And then the lover,
Sighing like funace,with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths,and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour,sudden asand quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
Wth spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose,well sav'd,a world too wide
Fo his shrunk shank;and his manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble,pipes
And whistles in his sound.Last scene o all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sansteeth,sans eyes,sans taste sansevery thing"
I was pondering in which stage I exactly fit in-not fully sixth since my voice is as before but my shanks have really shrunk and the part about my youthful trousers do appear too commodious fo me.
Whatever may be it,my sincerest hope and prayer to my Maker is that my history may kindly be finished before reaching the seventh stage-sanseyes,teeth,everything!!

"A MISS IS GOOD AS A MILE"- missing the Obvious!!

I am writing this to highlight what a minor slip or oversight can negate a well executed job.I had a friend and Colleague,Dr.R.Pancholi,a Consultant Pediatrician, when I was working in Telco(now known as Tata Motors) Hospital in Jamshedpur.He had brought his father for endoscopic surgery of his Prostate Enlargement-known in medical parlance as T.U.R.P.(Trans Urethral Resection Prostate)by our urologist,Dr.Pritwish Kumar Dhar M.S.F.R.C.S.
Well he had this operation on the appointed day but postoperatively,we were concerned since his urinary catheter afteran initially draining clear urine started getting reddish until it became tomato red.D.Dhar was expecting the drainage to clear up by the irrigation thru' the three way catheter.Despite giving 2 blood transfusions,his BP was behaving erratically and it was getting late at night,we insisted he should be taken up again for a fresh look.This was ultimately done and by endoscopy the bleeding point was coagulated and the blood clots washed away till return was clear.
The drama started after this in the Recovery Room where the Urinary Catheter was not draining a single drop of urine.Was this Acute Renal Shutdown which may occur due to undue stress of 2nd anaesthesia and intervention in a 76 yr.old?The tension in the air was palpable.I decided to check the connection of the catheter with the Urobag.Lo and Behold!! Know what I found?-the Urobag with its connector male portion is covered with a cap for sterility purpose was connected to the draining female portion of the Foley's catheter was connected with its cap on.I removed the cap and connected again and urine started draining like a river in flood.A minor slip which if missed could have led to much bigger intervention with disastrous result.It is said-take care of the smaller things,the bigger things will look after themselves.

FRESH OUTLOOK!!!- A CLINICAL EXPERIENCE

This was during my years in Telco(now known as Tata Motors)Hospital in the 80s.I was a Consultant Surgeon there then.I had just returned from a long vacation and I had gone to the Surgical Male ward for my rounds.As I was about to finish,my boss then,Dr.R.V.Singh asked me to see a patient which was foxing all the other Consultants in our Surgical department.Incidentally we had joint rounds in the mornings at 8AM though we had 2 units in place,before each unit went their separate ways to OPD and OT(Operation Theatre) alternately,so that collective minds was made to bear on the surgical problematic cases.
Well,this was a young man about 28 years old who had met with a serious RTA(Road Traffic Accident)about 7-10 days back.Initially he was transiently unconscious for about 48 hours with improving levels gradually.When I saw him,it was probably after 10 days or so.I found him lying in bed,fully conscious,and as they say in Medical parlance-well oriented in time and space.What was labelled initially as a "Head Injury",here he was lying fully conscious,talking,crying and laughing which no head injury patient could do but what he had was complete paralysis of all his limbs from neck downwards.
I reasoned that with a full sensorium and LOC(Level of Consciousness)it could never be "Head Injury".The lesion had to be below the level of Brain Stem and probably in the Cervical Spine.When I gave my verdict,the other Specialists pointed out that the Xray of the Cervical Spine which had been taken did not show any fracture.
I examined the Cervical Spine X-rays but I saw all the 7 Cervical Vertebrae were not visualised in the Xrays taken.My Surgical Guru,Dr.T.K.Lahiri,M.Ch.FRCS at BHU had taught me that for a study of Cervical Spine,all 7 vertebrae should be displayed.This is difficult as the 2 shoulders come in the way when taking a lateral view or an oblique of the Cervical Spine.Proper precaution and a manouvere is required to display all 7 vertebrae.A fresh xray was taken with the correct manoueuver and lo! and behold there was an oblique spiral fracture of a cervical vertebra,exact number of the verebra,I am not able to remember.A correct diagnosi altered the complete complexion of his management.
The moral of the story is that in our everyday lives we get mired down in our individual viewpoints or of the group or caste or religion-some thing we call"Tubular Vision".When we reach a deadend,if a person from outside comes,he brings a fresh viewpoint possibly with excellent esults as in this case.

'OLD ORDER CHANGETH YIEDING PLACE TO NEW"-My new car i10 Magna

Well I had this sweet beautiful Phoenix Red Maruti 800, which I had bought in1998 in Ranchi.We and the kids had lots of fun in this car.Though the car was a base model without AC or music system,the places we stayed like Ranchi and Kulti (near Asansol) car was not at all uncomfortable.We used the car extensively and travelled far and wide.I had used the car to bring my 80 year old mother from Patna to Ranchi-a distance of about 400 kms,driving all by myself  though the notorious 18kms "ghati" of Rajauli and 2 other less lenghthy "Ghati"s en route but no less tortuous,without once breaking down or giving any trouble. I remember a couple of years before I retired in2007,I was posted in the infamous Chasnalla,close to Dhanbad where the famous coal mine occured ,which was later picturised as "Kala Pathhar" starring our own ShotgunSinha.I had to stay alone in Chasnalla ,as I retained my bungalow in IISCO Colony at Kulti where my wife stayed back as she was teaching in St.Patrick's School,Asansol.The distance from Kulti to Chasnalla was 66 kms.which I had to drive on weekends,20 kms of this was through a Naxal infested forest.I remember I had to take diversions from the normal route over hilly track and not a single soul in sight during Jharkhand Bandhs,such that that if the car broke down there,I would have had no other recourse than leaving the car there and walking but God Bless,it never let me down.

I remember, along my kids and wife, how we went for long rides often to adjacent towns like Ranchi to Jamshedpur where we had moved/shifted at the beginning of my career..This car I had bought in Ranchi,which was still part of Bihar,now the capital of newly formed state Jharkhand and the number plate bore the Registration number of Bihar-BR14F 4237.At the time of purchase,I had paid Life Time(15 years)Tax.

.Life was going fine ttill I shifted to Kolkata after my superannuation in later part of 2007.I managed well for a year since I had paid Road Tax for West Bengal at the entry point of West Bengal from Jharkhand but on expiry of that period,I contacted the Motor Vehicles Department at Alipur.The RTO kindly allowed me to pay the Road Tax at Kokata but asked me to get No Objection Certificate from Ranchi.That I got from Ranchi with some delay but without much difficulty but when I again approached the Transport department,I found the former RTO was transferred and the new ARTO was a different cup of tea.First he straight way refused, as my car was not Euro 3.When I pointed out that the previous RTO had allowed me to pay road Tax here and when I pointed out that as per rules,as a Central Govt.Public Sector Retired Employee,I was entitled to transfer my car on retirement,he then asked for my Service certificate.After showing which he asked for a technical examination of the car though there no problem and even many mistris had opined that they had not seen a 10 yr. old car in such a good condition.In general,he was being difficult and also hinted that I would have to pay through my nose if I wished to have my car registered here.My relatives suggested that to avoid any further trouble,I should give away my Maruti 800 in exchange and purchase a new car.I wondered if it was worth that much trouble at my advanced age and even if I got my car registered here and sell it after use for some time after spending a fortune to get it registered here,I will get a pittance.I decided on the side of discretion and after much test driving and market surveys,voila!!! here's my present beauty!!!-a Magna i10 Kappa Limited Edition car.It has all the features I had wished for-the size not as small as Maruti but not too big to to be difficult to negotiate thru' the narrow overcrowded streets of Narendrapur and Kamalgazi and not too big &difficult to park in the streets of Kolkata.Of course,AC with vents at back &front as well,Kenwood Music system with 4 speakers front and back,keyless entry,alloy wheels,foglights,Power steering,Power Windows,leather seats etc.etc.In general I am very happy.Wish me luck everybody!!