Survivor Calgary

Sometimes a small fever is all that it takes for you to understand how vulnerable you are in a strange city. Add to that severe body pain, sore throat, fatigue, head ache, chills - you have a killer combination. I was struck with one of those combinations.. and I survived.. read on for my survival story..

A doctor is key to survival. I hooked on to my laptop, did a search for walkin clinics - surprisingly only one walkin clinic in downtown core. And it says "urgency care, patients will be attended in the order of severity of sickness". God bless you, mine is damn severe, I havent been able to eat anything in 2 days.

Back home, I had been spoiled by the Indian medical system. Hospitals are aplenty, specialist doctors are aplenty, for about 100 Rs (thats about 2.5 dollars), I could see a specialist, infact if you were a doctor who did not have an MD or MS, I would refuse treatment as a principle. Ah!! those good old days..

Here, if you don't have a family physician, you are doomed!! You can't see a specialist without a physician's recommendation. I remember calling a dermatologist office once requesting an appointment (apparently this was the only doctor my traveler's insurance had a tie up with). The female voice on the other side goes "Are you concerned about wrinkles? Do you feel aging?"..

"Err.. No, i have a rash on my neck and its sort of itching!!", as if I was going to stop her from saying what she wanted to say..

.."Let our revolutionary anti aging technology help you........... Summon Samson's strength with our hair restoration and transplantation techniques.."

"Samson.. who?"

Finally, after listening to the entire range of products and services, the system was kind enough to let me speak to a real person and she goes "Dr. Anne Silverstone is taking appointments for November. Did you want to book your time?"
"Hmm.. thats kind of late.. Its August you know and its really itching now".
"I am sorry, but thats the earliest date we have got".
Now there are two parts of my brain that kicks in with a response - I call it the gentleman part and the naughty part. The gentleman part said "Ok, Bad for me, thanks". And the naughty part says in my mind "Oh! sure. which is her favorite restaurant? btw, is she still single? Not that I care, but still good to know".

Anyways cut to present day, I reach the clinic, the receptionist says, "please wait in the queue.. a triage nurse will see you".. Yup, thats right, a triage nurse.. sort of like the defect triaging stuff we do, identify P1, P2, P3, P4 based on specific criteria (the ones we dont want to fix, make it a P4)

So I walk to the queue (except that nobody else is in the queue). The triage nurse looks at me top to bottom, and I could easily imagine her thinking "well, you dont seem to be limping, not bleeding, have got all your body parts intact, you are a P4".. I am not supposed to make a move unless she calls me..

Thats it Swaroop, you are done.. if you need to survive, use all the tricks in your armour, someone must feel pity on you.. Remembering all the good actors that I have ever known from Marlon Brando to Viggo Mortensen, from Raj Kapur to Amitabh Bachan, from Prem Nasir to Mammootty.. I reached out to the nearest chair with the most painful look anybody could ever show, crossed my arms with a fake shivering, and my head down as if I had a 50 pound weight on my head... "Come on somebody please call me".. a few minutes passed, a clerical lady passed by, I looked at her, she looked at me, our eyes met, and in that one moment I passed all my feelings of despair..

It worked.. she went to the triage nurse, got another nurse to look into my case.. Once I had my opening it was all easy.. I was always a master in dialogue delivery, this was a test of my body language acting and I passed the test in flying colors..

To cut the rest of the story short, I had two rounds of nurse interview (sort of like the technical interview). As soon as the interview started they would ask me "How are you feeling today?".. "Helloo.. why do you think I am here"..

And it was time for the doctor's interview (sort of like the final HR interview), and me the anxious candidate.. The nurse hands over a sheet which says the doctor's name..

When I was a kid, my father took me to this movie about a South Indian king who was known for his heroic efforts to fight the British off. His name was "Veerapandya Kattabomman". The movie was pretty good with a lot of thrilling action scenes and dialogue sequences.. I came back home with a lot of respect and fear for the character.. From that day on, any large and difficult name would invoke fear and respect in me..

I look down at the doctor's name. It says "Dr.Kharryam Khatoumi".. oh.. oh I am in big trouble.. The doctor will be atleast 6' 2", 240 lbs and he is going to make me spit out every damn thing I have done in the past two years...

A few moments passed, I hear foot steps near the door.. Courage Swaroop.. courage.. you can face this.. be a man.. The doctor walks in and.... hold on.. this is not what I expected.. she is a lady.. and she is cute..

Not to mention, the remaining few minutes were the highlights of the entire disease episode.. My head ache was checked, my sore throat was checked, my fever was checked.. I came out with an antibiotics prescription and a smile on my face...... I survived..

thanks, but no, thanks

"You are cute".
"Excuse me..".
Did I get it right? I didn't expect that from a guy, and a guy whom I knew his sexual preferences were, err, lemme say revolutionary..
Year 2006 - Toronto
I was pretty upset about some recent developments and just wanted to engage myself with something over the weekend. After all, an idle mind is a devil's workshop. I pretty much jumped at the opportunity of going to this summer party. I had known this guy at work, and he has always been frank to everybody about his sexual preferences. The party was pretty good - he had his neighbours, a lot of his straight friends, a lot of his couple friends and.. a lot of his gay friends..
I was having a nice time talking to people...

"You are cute", He said again..
"Hmm.. errr.. thanks, but no, thanks"
"Oh no!! she said you are cute", pointing at his granny standing next to us. I had been introduced to her a minute back, was talking to others and I'd totally missed out her comments. He was just acting as a proxy..

I took a moment to precisely grasp what's been going on.. felt a mixture of emotions passing through my head - I was relieved of not having to go through an awkward situation, and hey, somebody found me admirable!!

The party moved on, and I sneaked out a bit later with the rest of the straight singles..

A few days later, I ran into him again at the corridor, we both were out for a coffee and decided to head out together.. Started talking.. work, Bush, Iraq, arranged marriage (btw, this is a hit with all my western friends), and in general.. life..

"You know, some people think that we look and approach all men with a 'you know what' angle"- He said
"Oh really, that's weird", I replied, ofcourse with a faked surprise on my face..

"But the truth is that I feel the same about a relationship just like you do. I had a special some one.. It was short but it was very special."

"Then, what happened?"

"He left me. He used me when things weren't going good for him. Then he left me... But you know what the worst part is. I still can't hate him. And sometimes I think it would have been so good if he was in my life.. I still miss him so much.."

I looked at him and I could see the sadness on his face.. the pain deep in his eyes..

I hope you find your happiness, my friend..

mom and arranged marriage

"Why don't you like any girl we find for you?" - Mom asked me.
"Which one? the last one? but you didn't like her either" I answered.
"What about the one before that? The one fom Chennai?" - Mom

I did not answer. But she knew the girl's parents didn't want me to talk to her more than 1-2 times. They said "You can talk as much as you want after engagement". Great!! so you will allow me to call off the marriage if I didn't like her.
"No, engagement in itself is a commitment, we should not take such things lightly"..
.. Gimme a break!

"What does your father do?" Another parent asked. I told about his workplace. "We want to visit his office".
"Lady, are you going to get your daughter married to me or is it my father who you are interested in? Make up your mind". Well I wanted to say this, but how could I, under the sharp eyes and ears of my uncle.. btw, I do love my uncle, he is just so overly worried about me, even more than my own parents. He thinks that I am reaching the market cut off age, there will be no more demand for me after an year, I will end up as a bachelor thus defeating the primary purpose of my existence - reproduction..

Mom - "If you don't like the ones we choose, why don't you go and find one yourself. I don't care, just get married, I am tired of answering people"
Me - " Why are you so tired? Who are you answering to?
Mom - "I meet lots of people in a day and this is all they want to ask me. Is you elder son married yet?"
Me - "Why is everyone suddently caring about me?"
Mom - " I don't know, find somebody or get me out of this place"
Me - "I am trying, but there are so few single girls out there. Most of them have been taken, some when they were still in school..

Mom.. after a long pause.. "What the heck were you doing when you were in school?"

Peace.. This battle is not something I can win.. My mom has an incredible ability to win her verbal battles - tears, threatening, history (yes those episodes in life which she knows she can use to blackmail you, even though they don't have the slightest connection with the current scenario.. But she is adorable.. and I love her very much..

Thanks Amma (thats what I call her), for what you are!!

lokame tharavadu

Means "world is my home". This is a beautiful saying in my mother tongue, from that part of the world which was home to me for many years, and has always been close to my heart - the land of kera (coconut) - Kerala.

The statistics are quite interesting - Known as The land of Ayurveda, the land of the martial art form "Kalarippayattu", the land where St. Thomas, disciple of Christ landed for his apostolic mission and hence the land of the first Christian converts in India, the place the first Eurpoean to India, Vasco De Gama landed for his trading missions, the state with a significant Jewish population and more recently one of the richest states in India, the only state with 100% literacy, the state with the least violence numbers, India's lowest infant mortality and highest life expectancy rates, the highest physical quality of life in India, India's cleanest state and most definitely the state with the highest level of alcohol consumption - I sometimes think of it as a land of paradoxies. There is intoxication, but an intoxication which doesn't lead to aggressiveness - how else could a thin strip of coastal land inhabited by Hindus, Muslims and Christians equally still maintain a low rate of communal riots.

Folk songs speak of legendary warriors and visionary philosophers who dominated the culture and the way of living, elders speak of children at the age of 4 being admitted to a gurukul, becoming masters of Kalarippayattu and Ayurveda. Legend speak of such masters who viewed armed conflicts as a last resort, speak of a tradition when such warriors represented princely states and faught one on one to avoid large scale war between armies.

One of them said "lokame tharavadu". Did they understand the world? Had they seen everthing on what we know as earth? They might have, at the peak of meditation, at the communion with "parabrahmam", the realization of "Aham brahmasmi" (God lives in me); doesn't matter, but they understood the key to peace and harmony.

Only if every human being were to understand this, the world would be such a better place.

http://www.keralatourism.org/