Happy Doctor's Day!

First of all, I wish all of my colleagues and fellow doctors a very happy Doctor's day! But the Doctor's day hasn't started in an intellectually stimulating fashion for me - I read on the Malayala Manorama that the residents/workers in the Kerala House in Delhi were facing epidemic 'jaundice' which was attributed to excess Coliforms in the water. Now, as far as my theory goes, Coliforms don't cause epidemic hepatitis which is what the paper meant by epidemic 'jaundice'. The only thing that Coliforms are known to cause, in this context of course, is cholangitis, the signs and symptoms of which are quite different from this 'jaundice'. There must be a species of staff in the paper's editorial team called - Medical Professionals? Can't they run the story through them before it appears in print? Another thing that I'm dying to bitch about is the Government's idea of uplifting the historical landmarks in Kerala, particularly in Thiruvananthapuram, with ideas that are as teeny as it gets. For example, the City Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram spent a lump of money to renovate and 'decorate' the East Fort, the city's most prominent landmark. The final picture, which I'm unable to show you at the moment, is something like a kinky Vegas casino - the walls are lighted by lamps of the colors pink, green etc. Oh by the way, this is not Texas and we are certainly not in the 70's hippie era! Even though I didn't understand the whole process of "Legal Handover" of Saddam to the Iraqi administration thing, I could clearly make out the idea behind this cartoon on The Hindu which was about Bush's upcoming best seller autobiography! *winks*
Back to my life - My mother retired voluntarily from serving the Central Government for over 40 years yesterday. She was an employee of Department of Posts. There was an official sending off function at the office and a lot of her colleagues gave her a farewell accompanying her home. She, as I can understand very well, was very touchy about this. This was probably one of the moments in her humble career-one in which she had to sacrifice promotions for staying with her family. She used to be considered as a trust-worthy, reliable, efficient person at her office; almost the exact opposite to what she was in her family's eyes. Apart from this, I know how a work environment can liberate oneself from the limitations imposed by the family structure. I knew my mother enjoyed working immensely. But as she was tiring, she had to compromise on that to enjoy a quiet retired life. Anyway, the point that I'm trying to make is that I knew how important this was to her. And that is why I did my level best to get everything ready for the guests. I spent almost all day doing that hoping to make her feel really good about it all. And it worked! And I'm happy; maybe even proud! Apart from her colleagues, almost everyone from my father's side of the family came for the function. Some even got her gifts! You should have seen the thrilled look on her face when she opened up the package with the Mysore Silk Saree, an expensive one, which my sister and in-laws had sent! Everything was so bright and happy! One any other day, this kind of get-together could have been one of my nightmares-I would get stuck in these pointless arguments with my relatives about topics such as religion and marriage. But it wasn't in the end! It was actually fun! I enjoyed being the "nu" Me; somone who is mature enough, and matured enough in the eyes of others, to not be tampered with in his concepts about various issues. Would you believe that I actually enjoyed recording the new mallu hit "Lajjavathiye" with me on the guitar and my cousins on vocals?! This remarkable step in my musical career can be looked at as a deterioration in the quality of music that I play. Or maybe just expanding one's own horizons. I take the second.