Mexico city

 

Mexico is one country that gives an image of a poor country with notorious drug smugglers in powerful positions 

So in 2021 post Covid when we needed to go to US for visiting our daughter USA had a criterion for those coming to US stay in a different country for 15 days and five countries were listed .

We had visited sri lanka ,Worked in Dubai ,did not want Qatar visited Sri lanka and Maldives so option left was Mexico but mo one said a good word on it .

My daughters classmates mentioned a WA group of Indian parents going to US via Mexico .

We joined in that group 

The group booked Hyatt usually 

we too booked same but only for three days .

when we landed in Mexico city the capital city we found we were staying in city suburb called Santa fe .

Most parents stuck to thier rooms .

we went out and found bus connectivity to 

downtown areas .

There are two types bus   Rapid transport and ordinary buses .Rapid transport buses had dedicated tracks 

The city is bigger in size than New York I heard ,its in an elevation like our hill stations ,but with pleasant climate not stark cold .

 Most places I went around in the bus in Mexico city today was  neat , well planned with multilaned disciplined traffic , multi exiting flyovers ,underpasses, pedestrian bridges ,cycle paths  broad boulevards ,miles of manicured greenery ,no garbage ,no plastic covers no dust ,no filth ,and orderly traffic .

Miles of special laned rapid transport buses plied downtown areas ,with unhindered driveways  bus bays to stop .

Travel was by E card only which was topped up and was reasonable though not cheap .

Most downtown central areas are tourist heritage spots , walk only areas with vast sqaures, stately buildings, Spanish villas, and Gothic churches .

When I saw all this it was mind blowing as to my assumptions Mexico a developing country like India is a poor disorderly country and has many desperately trying to flee to USA which had  built huge walls to prevent an exodus .

Even the suburb Santa Fe looked better than most of our metro cities 

Of course Santa Fe was the silicon valley of Mecico .

It had skyscrapers lot of modern buildings

Next day morning we walked to bus stand .

Biggest handicap in Mexico is no one knows English .

We could convey our intentions by a mixture of dum sharrat and Google translate .

We learnt to reach downtown we needed to take the RTS or Rapid transport system with its dedicated lane in the center of road 

Bus stations too were in center .

One needed to buy an E Card snd top it up 

No cash accepted 

So we bought an e card each and went in comfort in the RTS 

Most bus stations had Police in battle gear very friendly to tourists .

Once we learnt the trick uding RTS we flew like we had wings .

In city we booked Holiday inn and checked in .

It was downtown and one could walk a lot since we went in fall it was getting cold .

City was spell binding ,broad huge well marked roads 

Pavements were as broad as biggest road in say Cochin !

Traffic was well regulated and people were civil and drove respecting rules .

Later we used Metro train too much cheaper than RTS and with wider coverage .

Zoccolo was city center with huge heritage churches Govt buildings etc 

Faith healers practicing Indian medicine were seen here .

Mexico city had lovely huge parks .

One could stroll through or watch public dancers or musicians 

We flew to Oaxaca for two days 

The city was unique in being mother city of Cactus based drink and Mexicos branded drink Tequila .

The city had lot of touristy spots Tequila or Mescal bars 

Schools had opened after Covid and children were gingerly stepping in .

Once back in Mexico city we did visit Teotuhican pyramids in a conducted tour and enjoyed it .

We tried Mexican street food in mexico city and many of thier dishes were spicy and vaguely reminded us of ours 

We had to get certificate showing covid negative and it involved specific clinics ,we went to one found a pharmacist who knew some english explained to him we had to fly to US 

He was used to seeing Indian tourists coming for this purpose  do he put us in slot

We had to come next day meet Dr do test get result in English and we did all thst

Mexico was truly a surprise 

Losing battles

 Sorry long post again but a glimpse to my job 

Pain should be the most feared symptom man faces .

It changes his or her  perception ,confidence ,

,attitude ,and perseverance  in life .

My professional work has been in relieving this pain not the acute short term one but the long term chronic pain ,debilitating and depressing .

By judicious use of medications to a large extent we can control this and make patient pain free .

Unfortunately this specialisation is denied its importance to an extent diluted by being clubbed with palliation ,either with or without palliation is what is achieved by pain relief .

Iam giving three examples of patients I treated recently .

 NK a 9 year old boy with an advanced soft tissue sarcoma and an angry swelling in his groin in excruciating pain ,bed riddance and swelling of his legs and groin but bearing it with the  fortitude of a saint .

He was on high dose of an opiod patch which controlled his pain to a large extenct till he left us all ,probably to be free of his pain forever .😔

Iam sure it looks very tragic to be in such a speciality

 My take is otherwise ,

I may not be in doing miracles but by relieving him his pain by my formulations ,adjusting its dosages ,adding and removing drugs so that he was to an extent pain free but also alert and wakeful Iam doing a lonely battle in makong him happier .

I did achieve that in NK s case as endorsed by his father

 ( my heart goes out to the parents of these children )

 its a fight against pain I do along with the parents or caregivers of patient .

NK is no more .

The second is a 65 year old temple priest with a sad wife the only care giver again with an angry purple swelling on his neck ,

Looking at it one can understand the pain he went through ,coupled with  his bipolar disease he was moody angry and irritable 

His wife warned me on him when she came to  my consultation room that he was a terror full of anger and frustration and would even beat her occasionaly .

He was resting in observation room ,

I went there to see him ,

Yes he was one angry man who was impatient to me and just kept repeating stop my suffering will you !

I dont need your words 

try to stop my pain 

Even with all my training and knowledge I was put off and I felt sad for his wife who bore this all the time !

I just told her to give the pain medications I started in time and also review his Bipolar disease medications with his psychiatrist .

After one week the wife came again and requested me to see him in observation room ,

she was smiling,

" Dr ippol kandal aalle manasillaavilla 

paavam aanu vedana kondaayirunnu "

ie you wont believe it he is so quiet but happy poor thing it was his pain that made him the monster you saw last week .

I was surprised at J getting up greeting me with a smile telling me he was pain free and happy,though his purple tumour had not changed .

To me that moment was like getting an award it even removed the clouds of NK loss to a small extent .

All it needed was his pain to be wiped off to make him a lamb from a vicious angry tiger .

Of course many do get their pain back and its a never ending changing doses ,medicines ,at times requesting a shot of radiation or a nerve deadening intervention management .

We use all our nuclear weaponry to fight our formidable enemy PAIN .

The third patient I saw was today 

B was a middle aged advanced breast ca with severe pain due to disease spread to her right upper arm nerves .

Neuropathic pain is unlike any other .

 we use terms like lancinating ( cutting with a sharp knife ) scalding or burning ,pinpricking or like pricking with a thousand needles ,

Even a touch or a wisp of a breeze  can cause excruciating uncomfortable pain .

She was accompanied by a cheerful most mature child for her age ,her ten year old daughter who kept and gave her medications .

How many brave people we see in times of hardness !

Poor B told me 

" Dr please relieve me of this torture ,my literally weak arm is listless ,my daughter takes care of me so well " 

I gave her the new set of pain medications explaining to both mother and daughter ,asked them to call me if needed as she was staying in Trivandrum.

She called me just half an hour back though I tell my patients not to disturb me after office hours unless its  an emergency .

Four decades of medical practice gives me the wisdom of strict timings though available to them most never misuse .

She had called as her pain had restarted after initial relief and apologised for the call .

I told her it would take a few days of adjusting doses etc but not to be depressed as I adjusted her dose .

Hopefully I can reduce her pain .

We in Palliative care and chronic pain management are not those swashbuckling dashing doctors ,

We treat desperate souls ,most who have lost hopes for cure ( exceptions there too ,some get cured and we even stop all pain medications ) 

We talk to families saddened by the plight of their beloveds going through suffering ,

Our goals are limited without glamour but genuine in its efforts .

Every minute of thier being free of pain or discomfort is a reward for us and gives us the strength to face the loss of the likes of innocent NK s .

Battle of Colachel

 Eustachius Brnedictus De Lenoy Dutch military commander and Battle of Colachel ..

It was 1741 

Foriegn companies powered with modern armies were continuing thier kerala sojourn all in search of the Black Gold ,pepper and other spices .

The portugese started it in end of 14 century by 16 th came the Dutch ,the French and finally the British .

Thier methods were to befriend local Rajas and chieftains defeating thier enemies and getting concessions slowly forming colonies and governing the kingdoms ,the Rajahs were made mere motifs .

But 1728 brought Marthanda Varma to power in Travancore .

He was of a different mettle .

He fought aggressively defended and even conquered land .

By 1745 parts of Cochin parts of Malabar were under Travancore .

This was not good for the Dutch who had godown business's and colonies in these areas .

The Dutch East India company was powerful with lot of ships of a strong navy and a fighting fit army trained in modern warfare with firepower and cannons .

The Dutch commander in Sr Lanka or Ceylon then warned Marthanda Varma to give back Dutch lands and also not try to invade Kayamkulam and its Rani protected by them .

Marthanda Varma not only defied him he replied he was thinking of invading Europe itself !

Imof with his young commander De Lenoy sailed to India with a formidable navy and army landed in Colachel near Kanyakumari and  put siege to its fort .

Thier aim was Padmanabhapuram palace of Marthanda Varma closeby .

They tried to win over local xtian fishermen Mukkuvar , to thier side using religion but fishermen would never betray thier Rajah .

Instead they sank many ships being excellent divers .

The battle of Colachel too ended in Dutch defeat as a spark ignited all thier firepower. 

All Dutch remaining alive were taken as prisoners .

De lenoy was given oppurtunity to serve Maharaja in his army with a regiment of pardoned Dutch soldiers .

De lenoy built Travancore army as moder

n army trained them in using fire arms and was given post of commander .

He built forts all along in north south called Travancore lines like udayagiri fort .

He reconstructed Vattakotta .

He died at 62 years and was buried near Colachel and the tombstone is his .

Manjummel Boys ..Film review

 Manjummel Boys ..Film review 

Once again a good patch is happening in Mollywood a string of hits mostly very good films are coming out in sucession ,probably one place where one can appreciate malayalees pendant for quality .

We recently saw Anweshichin kandethum

Brahmayugam and Manjummel boys all three excellent films in their genre .

 Manjummel is a suburb in Ernakulam near Kalamassery Eroor belt famous with Manjummel church .

Its a typical thickly populated precinct with lot of christian population ,where typical Cochin accent is spoken a dialect as seperate as say Thrissur accent .

In most of these places there are small groups amongst youth who have a small club ,play football ,are some superstar fans ,have a tiny club building , indulge in politics, get into drunken fights during church festivals but generally sociable friendly and highly possesive of thier regional territorial powers and prestige .

In summary they are nice youngsters who mean well and try to enjoy life helping each other ,most have some jobs too .

This film focuses on one such group called Manjummel boys .

Msnjummel boys  really exists and this film is a true picturisation of an event in their life .

An event truly remarkable in its virtues which but for this film would have never been known to many .

Iam not going to tell the story as it will be a spoiler though its a disaster management or survival story .

Near Kodaikanal are a group of  deep complicated dangerous vertical caves called  Devils kitchen due to its notoerity of mishaps and deaths there .

It is said Pandavas hid here and used to cook food .

The caves have tiny holes as  entrances to deep wells which when climbed down lead to massive caverns with twists and turns going down around 600 feet .

The Kamalahassan starrer GUNA was picturised in one of these caverns ,since then these were called GUNA caves ,

They are around 8.5 km from Kodaikanal bus stand and 1.5 km from pillar rock and these are reached by climbing hills covered by thick roots and huge trees with big rocks .

Many accidents had happened here with people falling into the trap openings with more than 13 deaths ,and Tamilnadu Forset dept closed it from public acess by barricades gates and wired trapdoors 

Still youngsters would climb up find some loophole to crawl down and some did reach superficial caverns and return back though it was a big risk and punishable by law .

The manjummel boys too in thier trip to Kodai were enamoured by its tempting adventures and got in but unfortunately one amongst them slips and falls into one hole !

The film is on his rescue against all odds by an admirable friend and loyal friends who refused to abandon their lost friend to fate but persisted and the sheer guts of one of them .

The film is as good as any Hollywood disaster survival genre film technically and  visually .

It impresses on the edge of seat viewer on the dangerous caves literally bringing his heart into his mouth .

Fast paced, funny ,and above all endearing the charachters are all brought out .

Amongst them the myths of the place ,cowardice of some of the policemen , support of some amongst them, the locals ,fire and  forest officials ,the dangers involved in such survival attempts areball brought out well .

Above all its a celebration of friendship and one comes out happy that youngsters like Manjummel boys too exist in this state where we hear of satans maiming and killing an young student recently .

There is hope for kerala in spite of its devils is the  message I got from this film for a large part of is people are good with humane qualities and will be winners defeating the wicked now in power .

The filming unlike in Guna

 ( appreciate how Guna was filmed years back inside a cavern with all shooting matireal transported down artistes technicians all going down many times as most part of Guna was shot here ) 

The famous Kamal song in Guna is used beautifully in background specially in end when kamal spells its beyond love ,it is not nessacarily romantic love but  its anything pure like  loyalty in friendships and such human values .

Kamalahassan himself said he was impressed by the film and also mentioned it really brought out the essence of the song ) .

The shooting of this film were done in sets as today Guna caves is restricted from entry .

The art director and team explained how they with great difficulty got permission to go in to a particular level of the caves to take pictures draw sketches take samples from a slippery moss covered ,bat filled dangerous descent .

After years of being locked in the caves were   filled with marshy muddy dead leaves moss covered stones huge branches and dangerous trap holes .

They then built three 50 foot high tower sets all with fibre glass making it so real where the film was shot 

Try to search in you tube on making of this film location shoots etc .

The actors specially Shoubin who is also a producer along with Gokulam Gopalan and Bhasi the other main actor were superb .

I feel it SHOULD only be seen in theater only to get the true feel of its technique .

This film too will fetch an array of awards in fact both national and state film awards commitees will have nothing left after seeing recent malayalam films to give to others .

Truly malayalam films have once again proved thier ability to take films which can jolt you beyond conventional takes and at such low costs .

Only parallel I can think of is ISROS economic feats compared to NASAs expensive ones .

Hats off to its makers and Mollywood .

American Fiction Film Review

 American Fiction ...Film Review 

Directed by Cord Jefferson

Based on novel ERASURE by Percival Everett 

Jeffery wright in lead role 

OTT Amazon Prime

Nominated for 2024 Oscars for 

Best picture,

Best actor,

Best supporting actor,

Best adapted screenplay

Best original score .

When I was browsing for good films I chanced on American fiction .

Though in beggining I had every mind to stop I persisted ,slowly it revealed itself to be a good film .

Monk the protaganist is a middle aged doctorate in literature and professor in an university ,Divorced and a black American .

He is a writer too with books in his name though none were famous were appreciated for their complexity  ,style and vocabulary but both ratings and awards and commerical succeses kept away from him .

Monk was not one to pander to liberal Americas political conscience on blacks in a superficial way  and a snobbish acceptance of them ,thier way of life and thier writings in an accepted mode like for eg a dog to a dog lover .

He wanted his writing to rise above such barriers of colour or race and not stick to the sterotypes of blacks in his novels .

Forced to take a sabbatical on his visit to Boston to see his mother suffering from increasing dementia his sister a Gynaecologist and brother though a plastic surgeon a selfish freak  junky and a gay .

With unexpected death of his sister he realises he needs to pay the bills for his mothers costly care home as his brother just drifts apart .

Monk sees that other American black writers succumbing to the groove of white publishing worlds rules are commercial sucesses and suffer no financial strains .

He also realises the quality of those writings are way below but they get the film offers of story ,and awards .

So one day when frustrated he justs starts writing a novel like them and finishes it at one go naming it My Pafology ,he has no hopes it would see the light of day 

He pens it under a fictious name of an ex convict  as he is embarassed to write a stereotype black novel with cuss words ,accent and tone of such a person 

But his agent feels it would be a sucess .

He comes to know from him later that a very big publisher was keen to buy it at a big price ,

Monk  tries to dissuade them over phone by acting tough telling them he wants title to change as FUCK  to the shock of his agent !

Strangely the publishers agree to that too 

Soon a weird film maker loves it and buys it at an astronomical price .

As Monk needs the money he accepts all offers .

Funnily he becomes part of a jury for a book award and his own FUCK novel is nominated 

He keeps quiet and talks against his novel getting award telling its too vulgar and grotesque .

But the rest of jury selects the book for the award carrying big prize money .

Monk comes to know sucess was assured by his changing stance and pandering to percieved popular tastes and not when he stuck to ideals 

He finally walks to dias when award is announced and the organisers telling author could not be contacted

He confesses to audience that he was the author .

Though it deals with writing and publishing it touches on fact sucess does not mean qauality or righteous ness it could be the opposite

Akshardam temple New jersey

It was a snowy rainy cold day in New Jersey today ( yesterday night for India ) .

Shyam had told me weather is bad in weekend so we will have to postpone our outings to a weekday .

Since he needs to be in his research work in University of Rutger and a couple of days in Manhattans Flat iron university peering at his STARS weekend would have been ideal to go out but weather was making an issue .

I had told him just one day in N York and one day for BAPS Swaminarayanan temple in

 N Jersey itself but in Robinsville which wasnt very close to New Brunswick .

America unlike India has a poor public transport system so I couldnt just hop on a bus and no train existed in this route ..

And then serendepity worked....

Paulo Coelho again proved himself right of how universal forces act at times to do thier best ,not at all times but at times only .

Chandra or Chandrasekar an young friend of mine since 2017 when I met him on another freezing trip to New york in a greyhound bus when I travelled alone from Cleaveland ,to me the young IT professional was good company to talk in the bus .

But we kept in touch ,

Later Chandra moved back to Chennai and stayed there with family ,

For last few years we were not in touch 

Last was when he arranged all help by remote control from Chennai for our trip to Sri Sailam temple through his brother in Hyderabad .

Chandra hailed from AP .

So I got a new year greeting from Chandra about his being in new jersey and If I had any plans to visit US  !!

I called Chandra and told him when I would be in NJ 

Chandra was delighted and asked my plans which I mentioned ,

He then said Uncle BAPS temple trip is my responsibilty on Saturday ,though I tried to tell him it wasnt fair for him to be spending his weekend away from his family and later about bad weather but Chandra had no excuses to change his plans .

By 2 pm Chandra drove in picking me and Shyam to a sleet driven drive to BAPS .

From taking picture in the rainy snowy slush to holding my hands so as I wouldnt slip in the snow and guiding us all around the magnificient temple Chandra guided us .

BAPS Swaminarayanan temples exist sll over world and in India ,called Akshardhams they are built by Swaminarayanan trust 

The biggest temple in the western hemisphere is  in its 185 acres in Robinsville spending 92 million dollars to build in 15 years a mind blowing work of art and Indian  temple architecture showcasing the best in Indian spirituality , tradition and heritage to the world as an object of priceless beauty ,a veritable fairy land ,a spiritual Disney world of fine creativity and efficient management the Swaminarayanan Akshardam  in Robinsville was one place no Indian should miss to see in the US of A .

Shyam and Chandra in no time became close friends and melded well .

Chandra had more plans and increasing intensity of snow only worried me ,he said Sir shall we go to Venkatachalapathi temple ? 

We put our foot down ,

So he said ok lets go to my house as Monika had prepared dinner for you both ! 

This was the surprise he kept to the end and would not listen to any excuse so we drove back in the darkening dusk in snow flurries creating eerie dark visuals .

Chandras cute children and Monika welcomed us to thier cosy home .

After some small talk and getting warm we were given an authentic Telengana Veggie dinner 

We had delicious Pesarattu dosa with peanut chutney ,Puliyodra with Avakkai pickles 

Alisanda Appa rice crackerel 

Chintaka pachadi a tamarind based chutney 

Shudh desi ghee melted over all this 

Fresh curd rice with fried green chilly to bite and finally dessert as Junnu usually made out of colostrum milk of cow made in US using its powder .

So much effort to give us a warm traditional cuisine which we obviously enjoyed .

After all this Chandra refused us to take an UBER back but drove all the way again in the by now increasing snow to drop us home .

What a treat it was !

Universe definitely conferred here making Paulo Coelho a honest writer !