Makunda Christian Leprosy and General Hospital – Light amidst darkness

                          

                                It was a pretty long drive. Our famed Indian roads made us take five hours for the hundred kilometres, I travelled from Silchar city to the tiny village, Makunda in the southern most part of Assam. It was pitch dark when I set foot on the land; “Current nahin hain”, said the driver, only that he did not tell me that current had not been there for many days. Though, I was tired to the marrow of my bones, sleeping amidst the croaking sounds of huge lizards and howling foxes was always difficult.  Welcome, to Makunda Christian Leprosy and General Hospital (MCLGH)! A hospital where foxes can be seen daily, but electricity had always been a guest;

                                After such an introduction you are bound to have doubts about the place, don’t you? But all those doubts are put to rest when you go around the serene, green 300 acre campus. You can see people thronging to meet the doctor. “We have been waiting for almost two hours and travelled two hours to meet the doctors here”, said an old man. “Four hours” just to meet the doctor (Leave alone the time taken for investigations, and other works) is almost a joke in my place. Why should he wait for two long hours? Can’t he go to any other place? Aren’t there any other doctors in the nearest vicinity? Questions, which can give a lot of perspectives.

                                The campus lies bordering the three north eastern states of Assam, Mizoram and Tripura. The place is so underdeveloped that you almost feel like living in the 80s. Credit cards are still an unheard of commodity, computers and the internet are for the educated upper class, the previous day’s newspapers are read the next day, IT means “it”, engineers are still revered and the threat of terrorists rise once a while. These states had to be among the poorest places in the country, my mind said. It is in such a dark backdrop lie this light. After all, lights burn brighter when the darkness is more profound, don’t they?

                                Just to think that it was an old, dilapidated building, closed for twenty years when Dr. Vijay Anand and his wife Dr. Ann Miriam took over in the early 1990s is mind boggling. The place is bubbling with energy. 300 Outpatients are seen every day, more than 300 deliveries conducted a month, almost 6000 ultrasounds are being done and more importantly almost 20 leprosy patients are given livelihood. When you begin to wonder at the numbers, somebody says hold on; you have not seen everything yet. When you finally see the primary school for the children around the place, which now is in its tenth year and a nursing college sending out 20 smart nurses every year who run to the every sound of pain, you are made to ask “ Is this it or anything else still remain”. It is no longer surprising to hear that more than half of the school children and all the nursing school students stay in the hostels and eat food produced in their own campus.

                                It is one big village out there inside the campus. They all work towards a single goal; the goal of improving the lives of the people around them. When I look back now, I am reminded of the saying that the light on top of the hill cannot be hidden. Makunda Christian Leprosy and General Hospital was started as a small light in one of the darkest places of the world. No doubt, it was a small light. But a light which had burned brighter as the days progressed and more importantly a light which is showing the world its way!

                                

Contentment – His forte

              

                                                           

                        As a young medical student in his early twenties, he vowed that one day he will be running a mission hospital in an interior part of the country, helping the poor and the needy there. It was in the early 80s when he was asked the question, “what was he planning to do in his life”. Almost 30 years has passed and here he is, in an interior part of the country working hard, day in and day out for the poor and the down trodden, as he promised that day to his friends.

                        Dr. Vijay Anand is brilliant by nature and extremely hard working (That is a rare combination, I presume!). He talks about the latest release of Linux, just as easily he talks about the latest technique of surgery. He got his first job, (definitely as a doctor) by making a blood storage cold refrigerator for a hospital. His face brightens when he talks about the latest photography techniques and the birds he took photos of. Sometimes you really have to tell yourself, hold on, you are really talking to a doctor and not to an electronic wizard or an Ornithology geek. His hobby strangely is photography and not surgery (Though he does around 1000 surgeries a year). Just for a second, my mind asks, Is he in the wrong place? Would it not be better had he chosen engineering or photography as his profession?

                        But all those doubts are put to rest, when you go around, the serene, green 300 acre campus. You can see people thronging to meet the doctor. “We have been waiting for almost two hours to meet the doctors here”, says an old man. Just to think that it was just an old dilapidated building, which had been closed for 20 years when he first took over, is mind boggling. “My first nurse was blind, second one deaf and the third a disabled, He says with a wry smile. Now there are around 40 nurses running around to every sound of pain. Just when you think that you have seen the entire campus, you are reminded of a high school and the nursing school being run in the campus.

                        The campus is buzzing with activities. A piggery, agricultural fields, a high school, a nursing school and add to that the hostels for both the high school and the nursing school and all those nurses and doctors and the families staying inside the campus, it is a small village out there. You meet the people living in the campus and everybody has words of appreciation for him. Everybody talks of how they are touched by the love and affection which has been showered on them by his family. From the principal of the school to the drivers talk about the influence they (Dr. Vijay and his family) have on their lives. Even the village head and the district head cannot stop talking about the works being done by the hospital and the school in the community there.

                        We are very contended and happy here, he says with a smile. Probably more contended than most of my classmates who have settled down in the big cities of London and New York. Yes! He could have earned much more than what he is earning now.Probably, yes!He could have lived a much more comfortable life and for sure a much easier life (Electricity goes off here for days together). But he chose what his heart told him that day, and probably yes! Contentment is much better than living lives in a comfortable stable.

                        Nearly 300 outpatients are seen every day, more than 300 deliveries conducted a month, more than 6000 ultrasounds done, in a remote place in the north eastern part of a country where debit cards are still unheard off,  computers and internet are for the educated upper class and the previous day's newspapers are read the next day. I wondered what could have made this happen?  Even dreams in films don't account for such success in lives. It is all God's will, He said and went for his work. 

Another day of toil beckons!But toil that gives him contentment.

                       

                        

Are we becoming a “ self certifying” community

                I think Shoaib Akhthar is wrong. When he says “Sachin and Dravid are not match winners”, He is categorically wrong. Sachin has played more one day internationals than anybody in the history of the game and statistically he has won more man of the matches in one day cricket. Rahul Dravid has been the wall of Indian cricket for so long and has saved many more matches than probably shoaib has ever played. So, Shoaib is statistically wrong as well.

                But, is not greatness and match winners’ relative statements? And can relative statements be quantified absolutely? It is always easy to defend anything philosophically, is it not? But, the fact of the matter is, even if Shoaib’s statement is proven wrong, why are we getting angry? Shoiab Akthar has the freedom to think, to say whatever he feels in his mind, Or to put it in a politically correct term, Shoaib Akthar has the “right” to speak what goes through his mind.

                Even if Shoaib says Sachin does not know to play cricket, I don’t mind! Why should I? One, he has every right to say what he wants to say and two, that his saying in no way demeans Sachin as a cricketer. Sachin, was, is and will always be a great cricketer, no matter what X or Y or Z thinks about it.

                We as a community have misplaced the words freedom and right and are searching for it in the wrong place. If I don’t have the right to say who according to me, is a great cricketer; what “right” are we talking about, when we talk about human rights and freedom of speech? Are there any more rights left, if I don’t have the freedom to tell that Ajit Agarkar is India’s best fast bowler and the bottom line is I have not hurt anybody. I really don’t think Sachin and Dravid will be hurt by Shoaib’s statements.

                Ah, we have become a “self certifying” community. As a country we think, whatever we do is always right and sadly we also think whatever the other person says is always wrong.  Let us be always right, and let others be always wrong. But, there is a way to treat the people who were wrong and banning the book release function is definitely not the way to do it.  Only if we respect others, we will be respected!

India Shining – or does it?

                Welcome to Gurgaon, the billboard screams at you. It need not scream to know that you are entering one of the biggest industrial towns of the country. The 32 lane toll gate with nearly 500 cars standing on either side of the road is the sign of the emerging India. Multi-storeyed buildings adorned the road. Shopping malls at every street corner beckons. The KFC’s, the Audi’s, the Apple’s, Raymond’s, the Denim’s, you name it, we have it. Welcome to the brave new world! Welcome to the new India!

                A planned city being built is unheard of in my country. At least, I have never heard of any planning going in to our cities. But, Gurgaon definitely is planned. Straight lanes, with neatly arranged buildings, makes you wonder, finally some planning has been put in to it. My sceptic mind said, probably, just probably we are moving in the right direction. Probably, India shining is not a political gimmick. With all these India shining dreams running along, I stopped my vehicle in the next signal, when a small girl with a child in her shoulders came begging for a throw away coin.

                Ah! There you go again. I could almost hear my mind saying, this is a small thing. Look at the broader picture. Even that girl, probably is earning more because of this economical growth. The middle class has become richer, the upper class has quadrupled. We earn more, we spend more and that is essentially the crux of development, isn’t? Come on, we still have small children as beggars, my mind wrestled with the paradox.

                The small girl begging is just the outward sign. There were hundreds of thousands of daily labourers building those posh monuments, living in shanty houses with no toilets, no kitchens and for some not even proper places to sleep. And believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Where are the workers from? Where are their families? How much are they paid? What do they eat? What if the job gets done? Where do their children study? Or do they study? Question marks are many. Answers as always are rare.

                True! India is shining. But  “All the glitters is not gold” ! We can glitter on the outside, but for us to become gold, real gold, we have to seriously introspect. We can buy a Jaguar and eat in the Kfc, but if we are not able to provide at least food and shelter to the poor we cannot grow. We can invent rockets and travel in metros but if we cannot provide proper education to poor children, we cannot grow.

Economics do not show whether the small child on her sister’s lap had anything to eat that entire day, neither does it show whether our growth is real.

Why i don't want to be in his shoes?

He has seen it all! Victories and defeats; records and records; ups and down; accolades and brickbats. Whatever he says is analysed, Wherever he goes, he is revered, Whatever he has touched, had become gold and whenever he sneezes, millions miss a beat. Through, the last two decades of riding on the dream of a growing India, Sachin Tendulkar has lived a dream. A dream not only, he cherished as a young kid growing in the by lanes of the famed sivaji park, but also the dreams of millions of Indians. For the fast, economically rising, and courageous India, he represented the face. Simply put, he was the everything, million people wanted……Everything they dreamed.

                Yet, standing at third man that day, with just an over to go before the end of a world cup match, I would really prefer writing about him than wearing his shoes. That over decided the course of that match. India could have won that with some simple, thoughtful bowling. But, 4 balls later the match is gone out of the hands and India have lost. Lost again. He has done it all that day. Gave his everything.  Played an innings of such brilliance that Steyn and Morkel , the best in the world, looked pedestrians. Dived, stopped and ran all around the park, as if he is turning 22 next week. But the truth is, he had to walk back that day with heads bowed down, because the team lost.

                Sometimes truth can be a bitter pill and the bitter pill for Sachin that day is, He can give 110%, and still end up losing, he can score tons of runs and still might not etch his name on the coveted trophy, he might dive and stop a boundary but still there are open spaces in his team’s armoury. That is why, I don’t sometimes envy him. Had he chosen tennis, who knows, Federer – Nadal rivalry would never have happened, Had he been born in Australia, His name would have been in the world cup three consecutive times, and sadly he chose Cricket, and without a choice was born in India and that is precisely the reason why I don’t envy him sometimes.

                Lazy, Chalta hain, people like me, might still revere him, love to watch him or even worship him but to be in his shoes??? I dare not, until, probably he lifts that world cup trophy, which he so much wants and to nobody’s disagreement very much deserves……and for that to happen,  fifteen other guys, mortals, not blessed with as much talent as he has, sometimes not wanting to win as much as he wants, will have to pull up their socks.

                Pull up their socks, not only for their country, but also for a man, whom winning that cup is more important than probably any other achievement he has done in his whole life……..Probably, that might make me change my mind a bit…….