The young parent!

That photo evoked intense memories. A family photo with my mom, brother, uncle, aunt and a few cousins. Damn, we all looked so young. 

The mother looked the youngest. She looked all of 25, perhaps she was 30 then. I looked 10. My mom wasn't the youngest by Indian standards when she had her children. She was a medical doctor and so had many more years of education, which prevented her from getting married early, as is the case with almost all Indian women of her generation. Yet, it hit me hard. She was at least 10 years younger when she had her first son than I was when I had mine. 

With the wisdom and understanding that only grey hairs and time can give, I huff and puff every time there has to be a decision on my children. Will it be the right one? Am I doing it well? Are we being too strong? Are we being too brash? So many questions go through my mind, and I know wifey asks similar questions too every time we do something for our children. 

How was it having children when you were so young and Naive yourself? A whole lot of my mom's patients became parents when they themselves were in their teens. How was it going through the emotional trauma of having to guide a child when you yourself are lost in the big, bad unknown world?

That picture was taken in New Delhi, thousands of kilometres from our place. None of us knew the language spoken there. In that picture, when all of us cousins and aunts were sitting and facing the camera, my uncle is seen standing, facing elsewhere. He would have been 40. Having two teenage children (my cousins) sitting there with us.  I'm just trying to understand what he would have been thinking at that particular moment. A young male. Not knowing the language. Taking his sisters and extended families, five children, and three women on a trip to a faraway land. The entire burden of keeping the family safe and secure is on him. Imagine what a burden that would have been for a not-so-old man then himself? How many much younger people had to do all these and much more for their own families. 

As and when a child is born, so is a parent! Through the complexities of managing one's own life, the intricate world of another young human being is thrust onto the parent. Sometimes life takes most of us through without giving time to intentionally think through what is being taught and what is being learnt by our children. Sometimes our lives are too complex to actually think about anything else. 

When I reminisce on the family picture, I realise through all the complexities I mention here, the mom, the uncle and all the aunts in that picture had done a fairly decent if not a great job at parenting. We have all become pretty decent adults ourselves. 

I wish we, the children in that picture, could get such grace as that was attributed to the moms, uncles and aunts. I wish there would be a family picture that our children will look at a few(many) years from now and say, "Phew, my parents have done a pretty decent job of parenting". 

Till then, I hope, wish and pray that my brothers and sisters and I navigate not only our treacherous lives with aplomb but also steer our children's as well. We are, after all, blessed with a few more years of wisdom, knowledge, understanding and grey hairs to do that job than perhaps all my forefathers ever had. 

A different world this!

 "My life is so happy, I'm helping people and saving lives", said Justina, a teardrop peeping through her eyes.

 Justina manages the High-Frequency Radio Station; I know; I understand; I was equally surprised listening to her story as much as you, dear readers. How does someone operating a radio station save lives? Welcome to this world. The world of radios. 

"There are remote places in the highlands which don't connect to mobile telephones. People might have to walk one or two hours to get a signal. Hence, the primary mode of communication for such villages is through High-Frequency Radio waves. So MAF Technologies, the Organisation that employs Justina, has installed radio stations in many of these villages. Most of these radio stations are kept along the airfields. Yes, airstrips, the only mode of transport for them is a small aircraft. 

In times of emergencies, like last month, when a wild pig had bitten a lady, the villagers go to the airstrip agent. The agent calls the MAF Technologies monitored radio station. If the case needs emergency transportation of the patient, like in this case, the flight operators are informed over the radio about the emergency and emergency air ambulances are flown in. If the patient just needs an assessment, a doctor is patched up on the radio for long-distance assessments and advice. 

Even in non-emergency situations, when any person in a village, wants to pass on a message to someone in the bigger towns, the radio stations are used, again through the airstrip agent and through MAF Technologies, and in most cases Justina. "I monitor the radio station from 7.45 am to 5 PM, but we will have to monitor it 24*7*365 and hence other staff pitch in and take turns during weekends and evenings", Justina concluded, in her measured radio-trained tone. 

At a time when Non-Governments are scoffed upon and a generation for whom altruism and selflessness are foreign words, there is a motley group of men and women monitoring radio stations and saving lives. 

The numbers over the years have come down! Cell phone penetration is happening, albeit slowly. But Justina is sure that there are still villagers who will need her and her ilk. Last year had 368 calls, out of which 116 were medical evacuations and 69 were medical assessments done over radio. 

I could not complete my graduation. Violence in my village at that time did not let me complete it. My home was burnt. My parents could not afford to send me to university. It is God's grace that I ended up joining here. I'm happy. I save lives. Justina concluded. 

It is indeed a different world! A world where quiet, simple and sincere people like Justina are fighting odds to save lives.