Man in Wheel Chair and Woman in Metal Stockings

While I was on line for my morning breakfast after hectic night duty in Patan hospital, I saw a man in wheel chair and I could see the happiness in his face. I asked him, 'How is your wife?'

He smiled me back, ‘Oh she is fine and I became a father, doc.’

And I formally said shaking his shoulder, ‘Congratulation, god bless you both and your child.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

I just casually asked him, ‘Where are you from?’

‘Kalikot’

Kalikot kaha?

‘Rupsa’

‘I have been there many times’

 He just paused and surprisingly asked me, Are you sure?’

‘Yeah I have been there many times’

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Yesterday one woman happened to me for regular check up in admission room of maternity ward at 6PM. She had shorter stature and had metal stockings on her leg for her club foot. She went through non stress test to estimate the health status of her baby inside her womb. It was turned out be reactive suggesting good status of baby.

I asked her, ‘Can you go through vaginal delivery?’

‘I dont know but I prefer to, doc.’

The mouth of her womb is opening and ripening. We put her on vaginal delivery trial and meanwhile we counseled her and her hubby that there is high chance of cesarean section for her.

Surprisingly she delivered her baby at midnight.

This lady was beautiful wife of this guy whom I met today morning while in line for my morning breakfast.

God bless them forever;  may their life be showered by world’s best possible happYness.

newborn of ABC

A newborn born earlier than he is supposed to and admitted in the nursery where he has crossed the 15 day of his life. He shows the sign that he can achieve the normal baby life after getting treatment here. He is still 1500gm and was born at 31weeeks of gestation. Once he has reached his feeding up to 15mL every 2 hourly but when started 20mL 2 hourly he could not tolerate it and stopped one feed tried to continue in 15mL and 10mL but he could not tolerate and became lethargic. So he was undergone full septic work up and antibiotics upgraded to meropenem and ofloxacin since high prevalence of enterobacter resistant to cefotaxime here. We kept him in intravenous fluid stopping oral fluid for 2 days and again started from 2mL every 2hourly and rest with intravenous fluid. Today he is able to tolerate 5mL every 2 hourly. It’s good sign he is trying to resume his healthy life and I am expecting to hand over him to his mother.

It’s good thing he is getting better for these 2 days but still he has challenges ahead.

His father, a lower class working man not being able to afford the drugs needed to treat his baby. Every time we sat for discussion about his baby, he comes with tears in his eyes says what he has done for that day to get money for his child. Mother is willing to undergo breast feeding but she is now in Sertraline and Haloperidol and those drugs come in category C for pregnancy and lactation according to US Food and Drug administration. Category C Drugs are to be used with caution if benefits outweigh risks. Animal studies show the risk and but human studies are not enough. Mother is so anxious to feed breast milk to her baby that she is ready to abandon the drugs she is taking. She is stable with the drugs and can communicate well. If she stops taking she may not be able to take care of baby.

When I meet them today to discuss about the baby’s condition, the baby’s father showed towards his wife pointing towards her ears. She was jewelries less. She used to come with heavy golden jewelries in her ears earlier now she appeared with bare ears. Those jewelries were gift from her husband on their first anniversary. They sold those jewelries for their premature precious baby. Haataka maila sunaaka thaila ke garnu dhanale…(money and gold are like the dirts of hand they can be washed away in no  time).

 I was moved with his gesture, I hardly cry. Nothing is superior than the life. Life is precious especially baby’s life. Their flawless, cuteness, lovely nature and their pure soul attract everyone. They cannot die and they should not die in this age. They have to grow and show the people how good they are indeed.

a new journey

It’s been long time that  I have not written the travelogue since I am not able to travel nowadays. After 6 years gap, I joined residency in NAMS in general practice. Well it ‘s really hard to cope with the rigorous duty in hospital and firing of questions in morning conference: it’s kind of different environment and experience I have been going through.  Having good job in a good post and abandoning it for the new start of educational journey looks somehow weird and encouraging. Getting yelling from young registrars looks unusual but still have to accept the truth. What I was and i am now…  comes in mind sometimes….hehe anyway it’s part of education.

Doing 36 hours duty covering night duty, next day being disoriented while getting questions in the morning conference is the unforgettable part of residency. Nothing comes in mind what I have done and what I am supposed to do and what’s my plan: it usually happens when you do not get rest in the night. Writing notes of the every patient enrolled and filling laboratory forms and drawing the blood and pricking the intervertebral space to take out the cerebro spial fluid and many of times being traumatic puts the resident in panic condition.

Moreover, alternate night duty is another horrible things in residency. Just being in residency, I am not able to think out of the hospital. Really I am not able to manage the time to hang out with dear and near ones.  Residency sucks sometimes comes out of my mouth but anyhow we have to continue this 3 years’ hectic journey. Hope it will give the new concept in life and help to move towards the service of people in medical field  in rural areas. Hope this will give the pleasure…!!!

Mugu Trip, post death escaping, part III

taking meal in Bhulbhule( A FCHV's house)

From the Bhulbhule, we moved ahead with full stomach having some confidence that we can reach Mugu that day. After few minutes we found some wide and open place. It is called Patan, a plain area for cattle grazing (it’s plateau terrain though). We started shouting in elation that we found such wonderful place in the lap of the mountain since we had crossed two deadly places before we found it. I made somersaulting over the grass ground and two of my friends cheered and started clapping hands. It was such a pleasant moment that we did not care what other might think about what we were doing. Passersby, shepherds, cottage hotel owners, sheep, horses, donkeys and other cattle we could see them lost in their own world.

Patan

We took some sips of cold but delicious water there. We felt as if we were taking the taste of amrit (a nectar of the god that makes them immortal) directly from god Shiva. We took some snaps there and video graph as well. As we came across the cool breeze directly from Himalayas, one of us uttered, ‘RUI, PHUI or DUI…’.we burst into a laugh in no time that refreshed our tired mind.

Patan

From Jumla to Mugu, road construction has been going on. Mugeli people are hoping to see their first motor before Dashain in this year but it seems impossible by this time. If construction goes smoothly, they may be able to see the motor by the end of this year. Finger cross to them. This road access to Mugu by motor is obviously good for Mugeli people; moreover, tourism will definitely come into bloom. Rara will be the best tourism destination for national as well as international tourist but foundation for tourism should already be planned by Mugeli People otherwise we may get lost what to do ahead.

Ghuchchiko lek, taking rest: throwing jokes and laugh

Crossing the plateau of Patan, we took rest on the top of the Ghuchchiko lek( Guchchi hill), the border between Jumla and Mugu wandering about 360 view. We discussed about life, journey, relation and destination there while taking rest. Somehow that moment make us sentimentalize. We were on the top of Ghuchchiko lek. it was one of most difficult part of trekking in Mugu. We moved down and down it made us tired but there was no signal of reaching the nearest village. Legs were aching, joints were burning and the whole body was tired; only taking rest did not make us regain the energy but there was no alternative.


Friends from Unicef and GTZ were left behind. Among them, there was one pregnant lady who dared to visit Mugu on foot. I really appreciated for her daredevil effort.

Ghuchchiko lek, taking rest

The Sun was sinking at the West, it was twilight and we could locate the road where it’s heading towards. With heavy mind and body, we stepped into the farm of a village called Pina of Mugu District. That day we stopped by there and rest our aching legs there in a cottage hotel.

LOOT the Haaku Kaale

Haaku Kaale: superb; LOOT: intellectual crime movie: amazed by the concept; salute to Saugat Malla( haaku Kaale) and Nishchal Basnet( director). These people broke the general concept of audience:' nepali movie not worth watching.' Who says now after watching LOOT. We expect such movie in the future. Saugat has great potentiality in acting, so natural and flawless; never seen before such flawless Nepali actor. LOOT established new paradigm in Nepali Cine industry. LOOT team has done fantastic job: you guyz are wonderful ...keep it up...!!!

These characters do not act they make live show plucking the real natural surroundings. It seems overuse of Nepali slangs but they look natural. Every slang they use is in real way. We can see and hear in almost every scene, ‘ke laamo jasto hereko….machis…m_ji…maa ___ …___baan…’ but director used it very cleverly but in natural way ‘coz these slangs are integral part of such character in reality, no doubt.

Amazing way of presentation about meeting the characters by Haaku Kaale for bank robbery: recognizing the thirst of money in each character and showing how they are brought up together. It was real challenging job but fantastic director makes it happen. Nobody thinks about other-side story of bank robbery while watching the movie. He may betray his gang members since he provides pistol to each of them and they do not know how to handle; audience can assume there must be something illicit behind Haaku Kaale’s plan but when bank robbery is carried out by other gang and Haaku Kaale gets beating by one of the gang members and bank robbery does not go as they have been planning for last four months, there occurs twist in story. Oh they got failure along with Haaku Kaale’s plan comes in audience’s mind but Haaku Kaale proves he is there. He shows how much well planner he is betraying his regular gang members in safe way.

It breaks the regular old fashion of Nepali cine industry: no hero heroine dance; no villain against the hero and heroine; no college and no family;  just the gang member with one goal: Bank robbery.

On the whole, Haaku Kaale is LOOT and LOOT is Haaku Kaale, 'bal hoina dimaag lagaa pasaa dimaag'

Mugu Trip: escaping death trap, part II

Vehicle dropped us in Jinha village of Botamalika in Jumla. It was early in the morning we had started feeling warm weather, at the same time sun was rising at the East. From here we had to walk on our foot let’s say in other way: in the 11 number vehicle hehehe…!!! Everybody got off the car and started packing the backpack wearing glasses and painting sunblock on the face. Almost everyone had the stick to support themselves. Some people tried for tea but we did not. We said, ‘shuvashya shighram…!’ we three people Mr. Pradip (Unicef), Mr. Shyam (RHD Surkhet) and I walked on our own.

After few minutes, we heard the blasting. When we reached nearby, blasting was for road construction. Asking army man there, we moved ahead as he mentioned about the road, ‘this road is short but difficult and that road is easy but long.’ ‘Can we go for short one?’ He answered easily, ‘yes you can.’ We followed the short road passing through the trail made by road construction.We ascended to the constructing road. The blasting man shouted at us, ‘can’t you be faster? We are going for blasting.’ ‘Ok ok we are almost done you can see us.’

When we reached so called safe place from blasting, we found a wall that was almost impossible to pass through. Mr. Shyam and porter ascended easily but Mr. Pradip and I were left behind. He was saying, ‘I cant..!’ I could see on his face. I had the similar feeling but we could not go back and two of us already crossed that wall. I thought ‘ I will try to climb up so that Pradip will be encouraged.’ I tried with my backpack but could not. I asked the worker man in the road to carry my backpack. There after I climbed the wall with the help of rope: it was real rock climbing. I made it through. Pradip was also encouraged; he came up with the help of same rope. When I asked him, ‘how are you feeling sir?’ he was just able to say, ‘fine.’ When I looked the road from the top of wall towards our destination, I could not see any impression of road, ‘where is the road?’ came out of my mouth.

 

We walked with the help of rope on the rocky surface of that steep wall. Meanwhile blasting was going on. We stopped there until blasting off. We moved ahead hiding fear inside the soul. Stones were wheeling down and jumping around us. Thank god they did not hit us. Workers helped us to go through that difficult part. We really appreciated them. We celebrated the victory over that death trap taking beaten rice. I must admit while climbing that wall and finding no road after climbing it, ‘life won’t go beyond this’ but we came across.

It was not two hours that we had got rid of that death trap, we faced another steep surface. We could not figure out how to climb that steep surface. There were two small logs hung with the help of a small bush and one of them was not well supported. Our porter climbed first and he made it easily. Shyam and I started climbing hanging in the cliff. Pradip was left behind. He was taking snaps of our climbing. Finally we ascended that steep surface and took rest at the top. Someone mentioned, ‘baal baal bachiyo  yar…!’

After one hour walk from second trap, we reached Bhulbhule where we hung out for meal.